



HRK.SKXTKI) mC^jO^ 



The Religious Development of the 
Negro in Virginia 



By 

Joseph B. Earnest, Jr. 



/ 



The Religious Development of the 
Negro in Virginia 



4^ 
T?7 



A DISSERTATION 



Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Virginia in Partial 

Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree 

of Doctor of- Philosophy 



JOSEPH B.'feARNEST, Jr.. M. A. 



Norfolk, Va. 



THE MICHIE COMPANY, PRINTERS 

Charlottesville, Virginia 

1914 



(tJ 



2^^ 3 



^^\o 



^"3 



Copyright, 1914, 

BY 

Joseph B. Earnest, Jr. 

Gift 

The Uijifcrsiiy 
OCT 27 1914 



O' 



PREFACE. 

A'irginia is one of the richest fields for historical research; the 
Negro question is one of the most pressing of our day; the re- 
ligious is the most neglected phase of the great Negro problem. 
It could not seem strange therefore that this study should be un- 
dertaken in the face of such a challenge. 

It is a fact, not without significance, that of the four disserta- 
tions issued from the School of History at the University of Vir- 
ginia, two have had as their subject, the Negro. To the influence 
of Professor R. H. Dabney, we ascribe this interest. Dr. J. P. 
McConnell's dissertation, "Negroes and Their Treatment in Vir- 
ginia from 1865 to 1867," U. Va. 1905, is an intensive study of 
a strategic period in the life of the Negro, and embraces legal, 
political, social and religious considerations. This present dis- 
sertation, in contradistinction to his, is an intensive study of one 
phase of the Negro's life in Virginia — the religious — from the 
date of the landing in America up to the present. The effort is 
conscientiously made to hew to that mark. Apologists and ex- 
coriators might shout the praises of the Negro or hurl at him 
verbal damnation, yet Time will record the amelioration of his 
religious condition while in America, as one of the proudest 
achievements of Anglo-Saxon Missionary energies. In the 
South, Virginia has taken a prominent part in this transformation 
or spirit-worshipping savages into worshippers of one God, men 
and women who sometimes show characters as deeply devout 
and conscientious as can be found anywhere. Just what factors 
and influences brought this about I shall endeavor to indicate. 

In this study nearly a thousand letters have been sent to prom- 
inent white citizens, prominent Negro citizens and Negro preach- 
ers. The endeavor was to secure evidence from every part of 
the State. About seventy-five per cent of these letters were 
carefully answered, which might be interpreted to indicate the 
sensitive state of public opinion on the subject. Of course, no 
one could expect that 100 per cent of such letters would be an- 
swered. Human nature is still human. Even in private conver- 



4 PREFACE 

sation a few Negroes evidently invoked the principle, "Doan tell 
the white man nufifin ;" and in spite of an expression of my in- 
tention to strive to deal fairly with their much maligned race 
a few could not be convinced. Several white men answering the 
letters sent to them frankly confessed that they knew absolutely 
nothing about the religious life of the Negro and dared not ven- 
ture any opinion. If these letters served to stir the thoughtful of 
either race to consider the tremendous significance of the prob- 
lems presented, they will not have been sent in vain. 

The more thoughtful elements in both races are anxious for 
some adjustment in the near future by which the charity of the 
more highly developed race can aid in the uplift of the more un- 
fortunate race. That a religious oversight was the fixed policy 
up to the close of the War of Secession, I believe I shall be 
able to demonstrate. It is also true that the history of the years 
since then exhibit the struggles, both successful and unsuccess- 
ful, of a goodly number of dark-skinned men, single-handed, 
often burdened by false friends, patiently wrestling with the 
problem of racial uplift in things religious. 

No person who has undertaken to write a monograph has had 
better reason to be thankful to friends for invaluable advice 
and aid in collecting data, than I have. It almost seems to be 
their work instead of my own. Dr. R. H. Dabney, professor of 
History at the University of Virginia, suggested the subject and 
has ver}- frequently counseled me with his mature judgment. I 
acknowledge to him, first of all, my debt of gratitude. Among 
others who have laid upon me by their kindnesses, obligations 
which I fear I shall never be able to repay fully, are Mr. John S. 
Patton, Librarian, and Miss M. L. Dinwiddle, Assistant Libra- 
rian, University of \'irginia ; Mr. Earl G. Swem, Assistant Libra- 
rian, and Dr. II. G. Kckenrode, Archivist, Virginia State Li- 
brar}^; Mr. C. H. Ryland, Secretary and Librarian, Richmond 
College, and Librarian of Baptist Historical Collection, Rich- 
mond, \'a. ; Messrs. J. G. and Hugh L. Morrison, Chief As- 
sistants in Reading Room, Library of Congress; Mr. Wm. An- 
thony Aery, Press Service Manager, and Misses Leonora E. 
Herron and Mary E. Lane, Librarian and Assistant Librarian, 
Hampton Normal and Industrial School ; Mr. Edward C. Wil- 
son, i)rincipal of Friends' School, Baltimore, Md., and Mr. 



PREFACE 5 

Kirk Brown, Keeper of Friends' Records at Park Avenue Meet- 
ing House, Baltimore, Md. 

It would constitute a book in itself should all the individuals, 
white and colored, be enumerated that have so freely given time 
and information to this work. I am deeply grateful to these 
many benefactors. It would be impossible, however, to fail to 
mention the names of the following, gentlemen, for signal serv- 
ices rendered me : Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, President William and 
Mary College, and Rev. E. Ruffin Jones, Rector of Bruton Par- 
ish Church, Williamsburg, Va., Dr. C. H. Hovey, President Vir- 
ginia Union University, Richmond, Va., and Hon. Rosewell 
Page, Hanover County, Va. 

It seems that it is not the custom to dedicate such studies as 
this to anyone. Were it the custom, this would unhesitatingly 
be dedicated to my mother, whose tenderest love and unbounded 
patience early taught me to see the good in everybody and in 
everything. 

J. B. E., Jr. 
University, Va., 

June ly, 1914. 



The Religious Development of the Negro 

in Virginia. 



INTRODUCTION. 

If the Negro is more susceptible to any other influence than 
to reHgious fervor we fail to know it. Whether propitiating the 
anger of enraged spirits in his African home, or in the ecstasy 
of narrating in America the details of a harrowing religious ex- 
perience at the time of his conversion, he is instinctively religious. 
Some think he is too religious ; others that he is not religious 
at all ; we believe that he is religious and is improving relig- 
iously. 

It seems that an average Negro is much sought after in this 
day for purposes of study. Where is an average Negro? One 
might point out a man like Major R. R. Moton, commandant at 
Hampton Normal School, and the world acknowledges his worth, 
yet he is not average ; he is nearer the ideal Negro. One sees 
elsewhere ragged, besotted, cursing black men bringing dis- 
grace upon themselves and their race. Neither are they aver- 
age; they are below normal. Objections are raised to individ- 
ual characters as fast as they are presented. One is uppish after 
an education in the North ; another is toO' backward for refusing 
an education in the South : one is too temperate to be average ; 
another is too intemperate : one is too pert, another is too sub- 
missive: one is too ambitious, "another lacks ambition. This 
bewildering list of pro's and con's could be prolonged indefi- 
nitely, since we insist not only upon the possession of many 
qualities to satisfy ourselves, but also upon the fact that an 
average Negro from our viewpoint need not necessarily be an 
average Negro from the Negro's viewpoint. It is likely that 
our estimates will differ. \\'hom shall we have in mind as we 
trace the Negro's religious development in Virginia? It would 
have been delightful if in this study an average Negro could 



8 RKLIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

ha\e been selected in each decade and by simply watching him 
move and have his being, we could have thus traced the relig- 
ious development in X'irginia from the arrival of the Dutch ship 
to this present day. But the world is all different from such a 
theoretical dream, and in absence of an average Negro we shall 
strive to indicate the race's religious evolution in Virginia. 

\'ery briefly, we must see what the Negro brought into Amer- 
ica religiously before we can appreciate this development. There 
are no contemporary records of what the Negro did religiously 
before 1619. We have to rely on observations of travelers of a 
later day and reports of students and missionaries who have lived 
among them. Even though R. E. Dennett has written a book 
entitled "At the Back of. the Black Man's Mind," we can be very 
sure that no white man has ever known what is, or was, back 
there. It is one of the inscrutable things of the universe. We 
can imagine, surmise, guess, but knowledge on that subject is 
forbidden to the white man. That there was something in the 
back of the black man's mind religiously before he came to 
America seems likely to be true. From what we can gather, it 
was a very disappointing something — yet it was something. The 
surest thing about their religion was the fact that it was a very 
low form, if, indeed, it could be called a religion at all. At a 
much later day, Wilson wrote: "The prevailing notion seems 
to be that God. after having made the world and filled it with 
inhabitants, retired to some remote corner of the universe, and 
has allowed the affairs of the world to come under the control 
of evil spirits ; and hence the only religious worship that is ever 
performed is directed to these spirits, the object of which is to 
court their favor, or to ward off the evil effects of their dis- 
pleasure." 

In short, tlieir religion began and ended in a belief in spirits. 
Animistic, oppressed, infinitely crude, the poor savages were 
subjects by night and day, to a host of good and evil spirits. If 
drowned in the river, one's family believed that it was merely a 
case in which the water spirit was victorious; if eaten by a wild 
beast, it was still the working of an evil si)irit ; if struck by light- 
ning, the same; if in a dream, the realization of a seeming dual- 
ity of one's personality was positively convincing that the spirit 
IkuI gone hunting, fishing or what not. This second personality, 



RELIGIOUS DBVELOPMKNT OF TIIK NEGRO 9 

this second in-dwelling spirit, this second part of one's individ- 
uality was called the "kra." Man's disemhodied, ghost-like 
spirit, wandering after death was called "srahman." 

The despotism of such a system was almost inconceivably se- 
vere. It was inevitable that such beliefs would give opportunity 
for some charlatan of a bolder nature than that of his fellows 
to claim to be able to influence, tame, or direct the spirits 
Hence, witch doctors, "voodoo" doctors, "conjur'' doctors, 
priests or "medicine men" arose. "White art" was the name 
given the protective achievement which consisted in placating 
injured spirits and protecting oneself against evil spirits by wear- 
ing "gree-gree" bags, amulets and charms, that were sold by 
the witch doctors and were eagerly bought and worn by the 
ignorant natives. The charlatans grew richer in purse ; the 
people, bankrupt in purse and religion. But not only did the 
African on his native heath have to contend with evil spirits in 
their normal nefarious workings ; he also had to contend with 
evil spirits which, through the influence of witch doctors, might 
be directed at one. "Black art" or the setting of evil spirits on 
a man became a tremendous business. Witchcraft in its most re- 
volting forms flourished under these conditions. Death was no 
longer ascribed to natural causes, but was attributed solely to 
spirits. Under such conditions a death was an especially serious 
event in a community, since none was spared from the inexo- 
rable workings of a witchcraft law which required the sacrifice 
of the life of the man said by the witch doctor to be responsible 
for that death. Thousands of innocents must have given up their 
lives because of this systematized, criminal, religious belief. 

The saddest feature of their religion, however, was the fact 
that it made no pretence of dealing with the relationship of man 
to man. It was a vertical religion, i. e. a religion between man 
and the spirits above, in contradistinction to horizontal religions, 
which endeavor to make man's conduct toward his fellow man 
the criterion of his love for God. "Their religion is not in any 
way allied with moral ideas," says Ellis, "and the only sins prop- 
erly speaking, are, first, insults ofifered to the gods ; secondly, 
neglect of the gods." J- A. Tillinghast in a luminous summary 
concerning conditions among Africans in Africa, said : "Even 
within the village they thought little of destroying the sick or 



10 KKI.IGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

useless, and could not comprehend sentiments of compassion. 
A lart;e portion of their population was enslaved. Polygamy 
pre\ailed, women were bought and sold, and chastity was valued 
only as a salable commodity. Parental and filial affection, with 
the exception of that between mother and son, was weak and 
transient. Social morality was not supported by religion, the 
gods being supposed to have no interest in the conduct of men 
toward men. Their religion was a dark and cruel fetichism." 
With such religious endowment well might our forefathers have 
referred to those natives imported into \"irginia as benighted, 
superstitious Africans. 

One or more very brilliant Negro writers of the present day 
seem to lay the whole burden of the Negro's present sins on the 
back of the white man because of the Negro's experiences dur- 
ing slavery. This seems to us to be very unfair. We grant that 
slavery had its vices, but it also had its virtues, and prominent 
among its virtues in A'irginia, was the care exercised in training 
the Negro religiously. We believe that the Negro is and has 
been in a process of religious evolution, which opinion is in 
entire contradistinction to those authors who would make us 
believe that Africa was a Garden of Eden, and the Fall and the 
consequent myriads of sins came after the white slave dealer, 
the Serpent, had beguiled the Negro into Christian America there 
to partake of the fruit of a tree of systematized labor and Chris- 
tian love. With far greater appreciation for kindnesses re- 
ceived ; in a far sweeter spirit of charity ; and with far greater 
praise for her race, Phyllis Wheatley, a slave freed by her mas- 
ter, wrote 

" 'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land. 
Taught my benighted soul to understand 
That there's a God — that tliere's a Savior too: 
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. 
Some view our sable race with scornful eye 
'Their color is a dial)olic dye' 
Rememl^er Christians, Negroes l)lack as Cain, 
May be refined and join the angelic train." 



RELIGIOUS DEVKl.ni'MKNT OF Tllp: NRGRO 11 

This inlruducliuii was based uii tlic following accounts of life 
in Africa : 

Atlanta University Publication, No. 8, "The Negro Church," 
edited by \V. E. Ikirghardt Du Bois. 

Bosnian, J., "Description of the Coast of Guinea." 

Dowd, J., "The Negro Races — A Sociological Study." 

Du Chaillu, Paul, "Explorations and Adventures in Equato- 
rial Africa." 

Ellis, A. B., "The Tshi-Speaking I'eoples of the Gold Coast 
of West Africa." 

Ellis, A. B., "The Ewe-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of 
West Africa." 

Ellis, x\. B., "The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave 
Coast of West Africa." 

Ellis, A. B., "A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa." 

Kinglsey, Mp-ry, "Travels in West Africa." 

Kingsley, ^lary, "West African Studies." 

Stanley, H. M., "Through the Dark Continent." 

Tillinghast, J- A., "The Negro in Africa and America." 

Wheatley, Phyllis, "Her Poems." 

Williams, Geo. W., "History of the Negro Race in America." 



12 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 



THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

It is the consensus of opinion among later historians that 
Negroes were first brought to America during the summer of 
1619. The introduction of another race caused new complica- 
tions — new adjustments — and these are important considera- 
tions in the life of a newly planted colony. We can postulate 
at least three things concerning these newest arrivals. In the 
first place, they had to be set to work, and this was not the 
easiest problem in the world, in consideration of the fact that 
the 'Negroes usually imported were densely ignorant, frequently 
inordinately lazy, and all had to learn the English language or 
be instructed by signs until they knew how to understand verbal 
orders ; in the next place, the Negro was taken into the colony 
by the whites solely for the purpose of profiting by his labor, 
and not for social purposes ; in the last place, the early inhab- 
itants of this colony had a busy time fighting Indians, clearing 
land, tilling soil, and trying to escape the ravages of disease, 
thus leaving a limited time for the conversion of the savages 
from Africa. 

The sculptor who would chisel an inscription demands and 
prepares a suitable surface for his work. If he is to chisel a 
new inscription on an old monument, he must first remove the 
old inscription. It is hard enough to build on a good founda- 
tion, but when debris is to be removed and a new foundation 
placed, the labor is doubly hard. If the Negro had known noth- 
ing, he could have been taught much easier than was possible 
under the existing circumstances. It is certain that the Negro 
came to America with his mind reeking with gross superstitions, 
depravity, and ignorance so profound, that he clung to these 
while facing the inevitable, with an enthusiasm worthy of a 
zealot. Their barbarous natures, moral degradation and fantas- 
tic beliefs were already deeply chiseled into the tables of their 
hearts. For the reception of a holy inscription such a worthless 
foundation had to be removed before a Christian foundation 
could be laid. The transition from a belief in multitudinous 
spirits to a 1)elicf in a pure monotheism was a mental ascent 
which even the most intellectual would have found difficult. To 



RKUGIOITS DE;VELOI'M]':nT U1< TIIK NKGRO 13 

have taken the untrained, unrestrained, sensual savage from 
Africa, and to have labored with him until he was made into a 
self-controlled, virtuous, prayer-loving Christian, was a task 
which might well have called for the supremest effort of the 
Christian men and women of Colonial A'irginia. We need not 
be surprised that the hearts of the early Colonists (even those 
who were especially interested in Christianizing the Negro) grew 
faint at the prospect before them. 

It was not alone becavise of the stupendous labor involved 
that the colonists hesitated to Christianize the Negroes during 
■the seventeenth century. It was a matter far more serious. Let 
us whisper it gently even at this remote day — it was because the 
opinion was current that the negro was a beast. This belief 
was in evidence certainly up to the latter part of the seventeenth 
century and in all likelihood extended into the eighteenth.^ Not 
only in America, but in England this notion had weight. It 
seems bitterly cruel to us now to think of such a state of public 
opinion, whether it was held by only a few or by a majority of 
the colonists. The actions of some of the worst slaves imported 
probably gave some grounds to substantiate the vagaries of the 
upholders of such a theory. That the Negro was regarded by 
some colonists as only a little above the monkey is almost cer- 
tainly true. A reflection of this is seen in the eagerness and 
seriousness with which Morgan Godwyn argues that the Negro 
is man : "Methinks that the consideration of the shape and fig- 
ure of our Negroes Bodies, their Limbs and Members, their 
Voice and Countenance in all things according with other Men's ; 
together with their Risibility and Discourse (man's peculiar Fac- 
ulties) should be sufficient conviction." ^ 



1. A vile book entitled "The Negro is a Beast" was published as 
late as 1896. 

Montesquieu also said: "These creatures are so black and their 
noses so flat, it is impossible to compassionate them. It is difficult 
of belief that a wise and good Greater should have placed a soul, 
much less a worthy soul, in such black, ugly bodies.. .. It is not pos- 
sible we should regard these creatures as men, for so we make our- 
selves no Christians." — quoted on pp. 151, 152 "Travels in the Con- 
federation" (1783-1784). From the German of Johann David 
Schoepf. Tr. & ed. by Alfred J. Morrison. 

2. Godwyn's Negro's and Indians Advocate, p. 13. 



^ 



1-+ RIvI^IGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

It SO happened that C.oihvyn -^ dealt principally with the Bar- 
badoes, bin these islands were onr neighbors in those days. In 
the seventeenth century our histories reveal many points in com- 
mon. One lady of consecrated character living in those islands 
expressed to Godwyn her opinion that he might as well have bap- 
tized puppies as baptize the Negroes.^ Another remarked after 
the baptism of one of her slaves by Godwyn that the baptism of 
her black bitch would have been just as efficacious so far as 
soul-saving was concerned. Mulattoes were baptized frequently. 
Perhaps the white part was considered worth saving! Negroes 
were not even permitted to come near religious exercises as they 
were deemed beyond the pale and could not be expected to share 
the joys of the Christian life, or undertake its responsibilities. 
The Islanders argued that as long as the slaves were not bap- 
tized God required nothing of them, and the administration of 
baptismal rites merely tempted God and unnecessarily exposed 
the baptized to the horrors of eternal damnation to which their 
certain failure to live upright, Christian lives must inevitably 

3. (1) The two phamplets written by Godwyn have such inter- 
esting titles, we shall quote them in full. "The Negro's and Indians. 
Advocate, Suing for their Admission into the Church: or a Per- 
suasive to the Instructing and Baptizing of the Negro's and Indians 
in our Plantations, Showing That as the Compliance therewith can 
prejudice no Man's just Interest; So the Wilful Neglecting and Op- 
posing of it, is no less than a manifest Apostacy from the Christian 
Faith. To which is added a brief Account of Religion in Virginia. 
By Morgan Godwyn Sometime St. of Ch. Ch. Oxon. Judges 19:30 
Acts 4:20. "If we must answer for our idle words, how much more 
for our idle silence?" St. Augustine. London, Printed for the Au- 
thor, by J. D. and are to be sold by most booksellers. 1080." 

(2) "A Supplement to the Negros & Indians Advocate; or. Some 
further Considerations and proposals for the effectual and speedy 
carrying on of the Negro's Christianity in our Plantations (notwith- 
standing the late pretended Impossil)ilities) without any prejudice to 
their Owners. By M. G. a Presbyter of the Church of England. St. 
Luke 18, 4 "He would not for a while, l)ut", etc. St. Mat. 21. 24 
"Afterward he repented, and went. "Who made you Ministers of 
the Gospel to the JVhite People only, and not to the Tawneys and 
Blacks ^aho? Quakers Speech to the Ministers of Barbadocs p. 4 of 
Negro's Advocate. London Printed liy J. D. KkSI." 

4. See Godwyn Negro's and Indians Advocate, p. 38 f. 



RELIGIOUS DKVKLOPMKNT OI* THE NEGRO 15 

consign them. It is also true that many masters opposed the 
baptism of slaves for economic and precautionary reasons. It 
was feared that Christian slaves would by eliciting greater sym- 
pathy make stronger demands on the food and clothing supplies 
furnished by their masters, and more important still, their in- 
creased knowledge might stir up within their ranks violence suf- 
ficiently grave to endanger the lives of their owners."' 

The same general opposition to the evangelization of the 
Negro was prevalent in Virginia as it was in the Barbadoes. 
It was never so intense, however, nor so widespread. The ob- 
jection that Christians could not be held as slaves for life was 
persistently urged to the detriment of the baptism of the Ne- 
groes. A man was considered by some a dullard, or worse, 
almost an ass, if he dared to advocate the Christianizing of 
slaves.*' \Ym. Stevens Perry, writing concerning the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in the Foreign Plantations said: 
"With such lack of ministers and ministrations .... the 
late labors which had been undertaken from time to time in be- 
half -of the civilizing and Christianizing of the Negroes, already 
become numerous and brought within reach of instruction, had 
wholly ceased."' He then quoted Godwyn who could hardly 
expect very much from the ministry of Virginia in that day since 
he claimed that they "also are most miserably handled by their 
Plebeian Juntos, the Vesteries." 

If this foregoing evidence were all, we might well agree with 
a statement in a valuable study,^ edited by W. E. Burghardt Du 
Bois, of Atlanta University, that "the most obvious reason for 
the spread of witchcraft and persistence of heathen rites among 
negro slaves was the fact that at first no efifort was made by 
masters to offer them anything better." But the foregoing evi- 



5. Bowden's "History of the Friends," p. 190. Wm. Edmundson 
accompanied George Fox to Barbadoes; and he too reprobated slav- 
ery. In 1675, he mentions having "negroes' meeting in families" and 
that, "several meetings were settled on such accounts. He was 
brought before the Governor on a charge of making the Negroes 
Christians, and would make them rebel." 

6. See Morgan Godwyn— Negro's & Indians Advocate, p. 172. 

7. History of the Am. Episcopal Church— Perry, p. 204. 

8. The Negro Church, p. 6.— Atlanta Univ. Publication No. 8—1903. 



16 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

dence is not all, and we can be quite sure that Godwyn in the 
enthusiasm of his advocacy, somewhat exaggerated the facts 
as far as \'irginia is concerned. Another prominent Negro, the 
historian Williams, has said: "In a moral and religious sense, 
the slaves of the colony of A'irginia received little or no at- 
tention from the Christian Church The 'white Chris- 
tians' hated the Negro, and the Church bestowed upon him a 
most bountiful amount of neglect."*' Fortunately, for the honor 
of \'irginians, these quotations are only partly true. These 
brilliant Negroes failed to look deep enough into the records of 
our colonial history ; or if they looked, failed to present the evi- 
dence which in its cumulative effect certainly offsets much of this 
aforestated seeming neglect. 

In a short time after the importation of the first Negroes there 
are conclusive bits of evidence to substantiate the fact that the 
conscience of at least one "white Christian" was stirred on the 
subject of the salvation of the blacks. And let us be reminded 
that this was, at least, fifty-five years before Morgan Godwyn 
wrote his two pamphlets. In "A List of Names; of the Liv- 
ing in A'irginia February the 16, 1623," we find among others 
following that of Captain William Tucker, the names of An- 
thony and Issabella, Negroes.^o Under the caption, "Musters 
of the Inhabitants in Mrginia 162 4/5," we find in the lists of 
names for Elizabeth City County, "The corporation of Eliza- 
beth Cittie," these interesting entries, 

"Captain William Tucker his muster 

Captain William Tucker: aged 36: in the Mary and Jane: 
1610: 

Mrs. Alary Tucker: aged 26; in the George: 1623. 

William Crawshaw an Indean Baptised 

Antoney Negro: Isabell Negro: and William their child 
Baptised."^ 1 

In a second edition of Tlotten the entry referring to Anthony 
reads "Anthony, negro, Isabell, a Negro, and William her child, 
baptised." Whether the little Negro child was the only one bap- 



9. Hist, of the Negro Race in America, p. 131. 

10. Hotten, Emigrants, p. 185. 

11. ll)id. p. 244. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 17 

tized, or the whole family, is not of so great importance as the 
fact that, at least, one Negro was baptized soon after the con- 
tact with the colonists in \'irginia. This baptismal occasion may 
well be considered a red-letter day in the annals of the Negro 
race. It marked the beginning of a stewardship in spiritual 
things that bound the better elements of the White race to the 
Negro race until after Reconstruction had run part of its course. 
It was a very unpretentious beginning of the evangelization of 
the race, yet it was a successful beginning. The Government 
Census Reports on Religious Bodies, 1906,^- credits Virginia 
with 307,374 Negro communicants or members. This host is 
not a negligible component of the life of our State. The day of 
small beginnings should not be despised. 

The old Registers and Vestry books of the early Colonial Par- 
ishes have been badly preserv'ed, if not actually destroyed. In 
one place, the leaves were torn out and folded to make fire 
lighters for household use ; in another, the leaves were used as 
tops for preserve jars ; in others, the old books were simply 
misplaced ; in still others, burned. Something has happened to 
most of them. Fires have devastated many old County Court 
Records. Rats, carelessness and poor systems of filing have 
added to the confusion. Occasionally, however, a ray of light 
is shed on our study. A few such cases we shall now present. 
In 1641 a Negro, John Graween, the servant of William Evans, 
became the father of a child by a slave belonging to Lieut. Rob- 
ert Sheppard. The negro father was exceedingly desirous that 
his child "should be made a Christian and brought up in the 
fear of God and in the knowledge of rc'Iigion taught and exer- 
cised in the Church of England." By accumulations from the 
sale of hogs which his master permitted him to keep upon half 
shares, Graween eventually purchased the freedom of his child. 
The court declared that the disposing and education of the child 
should be in the hands of the child's father and godfather, who 
undertook to see that it should receive an edjucation in the Chris- 
tian belief. ^^ 



12. Part I, p. 562. 

13. General Court Orders, March 31, 1641, Robinson Transcripts Va. 
Hist. Mag., vol. 11, page 281. 

See Bruce's Economic Hist, of Va., \'ol. II, p. 96. 



18 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

In 1645, Francis Pott of Norlhaiiipton County, had two negro 
children bound to him and by the terms of the indenture he not 
only bound himself to furnish them sufficient meat, drink, cloth- 
ing and lodging but also to use his best endeavofs to rear them 
in the fear of God and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Mr. 
Pott bought these children from one of his Negro servants 
named Emanuel Dregis. The books mentioned in an abstract 
under the same date, quoted in the \^irginia Historical Mag- 
azine, were, "The Bible without the Psalms ; Dr. William Smith's 
Sermons; and the Practice of Piety. "^^ Even if owners of 
Negroes were not impelled by Christian motives, it would very 
naturally be to their best interest to give their slaves a knowledge 
of the rudiments of reading and writing. And how acceptable 
the P)ible was for a text-book in those days ! It is true that the 
Negroes often had to be made to go to church, but this was done 
quite generally. 

In York County Records, Amy Barnhouse wishes all Chris- 
tian people to know that she gave to Mihill Gowan, a free negro, 
employed by Air. Robert Stafford, "a male child borne ye 25th. 
of August in ye yeare of our Lord God 1(555 of ye body of my 
negro Rosa — being baptized by Mr. Edward Johnson the 2nd. 
of September i6j^ and named William. "^^ Mr. Johnson was 
one of the witnesses to this legal document and signed himself, 
minister. Mr. W. Ingraham was the other witness. "At a 
Court held for York County 26 August i66/' it is seen that 
Edmond Chrisman's wife took her Negroes to a Quaker meet- 
ing. Quakers were under the interdict at that time and the court 
ordered that Chrisman "restreyne his said Negroes and whole 
familv from repairing to ye said unlawful Assemblye at his 
peril." ^'^ 

It is gratifying to know^ that the old records show such a com- 
mendable zeal on the part of some in promoting the religious 



14. Ms. Court Records of Northampton County, 1645-1651, p. 82. 
Book No. 3 (orders, deeds & wills). Abstract of same in Va. Hist. 
Majr., Vol. IV, p. 407. See J. C. Wise, "The Early History of the 
Eastern Shore of Virginia," p. 287; also, J. Russell, "The Free Ne- 
gro in Virginia, ir)10-lS65," p. 138. 

15. York County Records, Vol. 1657-1662, p. 45. 

16. York County Records, Vol. 1657-1662, p. 324. 



R^UGIOUS DEVELOPMENT Ol" THE NEGRO 19 

welfare of Negroes. A further searcli of the records would 
doubtless reveal many more instances of which the foregoing 
are samples. One could hardly expect, however, to find in 
Court Records many details concerning the religious welfare of 
white people and necessarily much less concerning Negroes. 
There are a surprising number of references to kindnesses, etc., 
extended to Negroes, as found in manumissions and papers of 
commendation, petitions and the like, but those matters are not 
exactly to our point. It is significant that the church eventually 
became the agency for carrying out the laws of negro appren- 
ticeship.^" The administration of the laws concerning children 
born of a free English woman and a negro or mulatto was in 
the church warden's hands. ^^ 

The mother country's missionary interest in Virginia never 
flagged. Not only were the Indians a matter of consideration in 
this connection, but the Negroes also received their share. In 
1661 the Council for Foreign Plantations ordered that a letter 
should be sent to the authorities in the Barbadoes and Virgmia 
commanding them to encourage the introduction of ministers 
who would specialize in the work of converting the newly im- 
ported Negroes to Christianity.^^ The Negro as a distinctive 
element in our early Virginia days needed the attention of ex- 
perts. To prepare them for baptism would have been a diffi- 
cult task indeed, if left in the hands of the Colonial ministry 
alone.-'' There is much romance about our early Virginia his- 
tory, but it is a gruesome fact that the ministers who came here 
must have sorely taxed the patience of the godly-disposed among 
the "adventurers." The statutes of that day show a legal wall 
built around the ministers to prevent them from overleaping 
bounds and transgressing in such a manner as to involve the 
profanation of themselves, their parishioners and the church. ^^ 



17. Hening, vol. 3, p. .57. 

18. Hening-, vol. 3, p. 87. 

19. British State Papers, Colonial, Vol. XIV, No. 59. 
See Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, p. 96. 

20. Sir Wm. Berkeley wrote in IfiTl; "We have 48 parishes 

Ministers well paid and would be better, // tlicy Xi'oiild pray oftencr 
and preach. less." 

21. Hening, vol. I, p. 158. 



20 RELIGIOUS DEVEIvOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

It seems very clear that the spiritual food doled out to the colo- 
nists would scarcely permit tliem to surfeit, and we may be 
sure that Negroes under these circumstances should have been 
thankful that they received anything at all. In reality, the ar- 
gument advanced that slavery was justifiable because the slaves 
were Christianized by the slave-holders came precariously near 
not being true. That efforts were made, however, to accomplish 
the commendable purpose of Christianizing them, none can deny. 

Immorality in sexual matters was positively inhibited in the 
colony. The Negro was certainly protected here, if anything, 
better than at a later date. In 1630, Sept. 17th, we read that: 
"Hugh Davis is to be soundly whipped, before an assembly of 
negroes and others for abusing himself to the dishonor of God, 
and shame of Christians, by defiling his body in lying with a 
negro, which fault he is to acknowledge next Sabbath day."-- 
In 1640, "Robert Sweet to do penance in church according to 
laws of England, for getting a negro woman with child and the 
woman whipt."-^ The act passed in 1662 in which the English 
principle Partus sequitur vEntrem was made law in Virginia, 
concludes with a penalty of double the fines imposed by a former 
act, "if any Christian shall commit fornication with a negro 
m.an or woman."-'* Nothing can be more certainly established 
concerning the seventeenth century than the fact that the "pre- 
vention of that abominable mixture and spurious issue which 
hereafter may encrese in this dominion" was a matter extremely 
puzzling to the legislators and concerning which they spoke in 
no uncertain tones. In 1691 it was enacted that "whatsoever 
English, or other white man or woman being free shall inter- 
marry with a negro, mulatto, or Indian man or woman bond 
or free, shall within three months after such marriage be ban- 
ished and removed from this dominion forever.''^^ The jus- 
tices of the counties were to make it "their particular care, that 
this act be ])ut in effectual execution." It was inevitable that 
there should l)e many tran.sgressions, Ijut they are to be ascribed 



22. Hening-, vol. I, p. 146. 

23. Hening, vol. I, p. 552. 

24. llciiing, vol. II, p. 170. 

25. Hening, vol. HI, p. 86. 



REUGIOUS DEVKLOPMENT oF TIIIC NEGRO 21 

rather to the frailties of human nature than to any lack of good 
motives among the colonists. It is because of an utter, almost 
studied misapprehension of the sincerity of the religious life of 
the Colonial settlers in Virginia ^c that Negroes have been led 
to believe that they received no care religiously in the early part 
of the seventeenth century. It is only fair to both races that 
the truth be known. 

In 1667 one of the impediments to the baptism of Negroes 
was removed. In the very earliest days of Portuguese activities 
in the slave trade the justification of the business was that the 
grand end to be attained would be the salvation of many souls. 
This argument availed to satisfy the religionists and was gladly 
accepted by those being benefited financially. Africa was a much 
darker continent then than now. If the slave trade could save 
souls, then a double benefit would be derived by the purchaser 
of slaves : ( 1 ) he would be instrumental in converting the 
heathen, and (2) he would secure the life-long services of ca- 
pable laborers. Christian people, however, had seen the incon- 
sistency of holding other Christians in slavery. The idea of 
freedom was inseparably connected with the Christian belief. 
Hence, men of a heathen land such as Africa were subject to 
the bonds of slavery, while Englishman, Frenchmen, and the 
like, were not liable to suffer that fate, since they were assumed 
to be Christians, and salvation, as well as freedom, was sup- 
posed to be theirs already. 

Ever since the Diet of Worms a notion had been half -lurking 
in the minds of men that baptism and the consequent conversion 
to Christianity effected the freedom of a slave. What should 
be done with this question in Virginia? The heathen had been 
set down here, and others were being bought, Virginians w^anted 
to retain their property at its full economic value, and they 
wanted, too, to have their negroes saved. Here was the di- 
lemma. According to the reasoning of some, if they had them 
baptized the Negroes became Christians and thus the piety of the 
conscientious masters would work injury to their finances by 
their being forced to release the slaves from life-long servitude. 



26. See defense of Virginia by Thomas Nelson Page — The Old Do- 
minion — Plantation Edition, p. 372. 



22 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMKNT OF TIIK NEGRO 

If they (lid not have them baptized, the laudable purpose of 
Christianizing the Negroes would be stopped, the Negroes would 
grow more degraded (if possible), and the consciences of the 
best masters would Ije violently disturbed. With our present 
perspective, perhaps some of us marvel that anyone should hes- 
itate to save the souls of men because of pecuniary interest. 
Yet, like economic considerations are powerful enough even in 
this day to make us moderns do some things that seem as crav- 
enly irreligious. Conscience salve is in existence now as well 
as then. In those days some conserved their pecuniary inter- 
ests by trusting to the mercy of God to save the poor, ignorant, 
black savages ; in these days, many aid the Negroes financially 
in their church-building projects, yet reap rich harvests out of 
institutions that make it impossible for them to live up to their 
religious professions. The Virginia gentlemen of long ago en- 
deavored to remedy their defect by passing a law which was 
ingenious philosophically and legally. This law of 1667 is 
worthy of being quoted in its entirety: "Whereas some doubts 
have risen whether children that are slaves by birth, and by 
the charity and piety of their owners made partakers of the 
blessed sacrament of baptisme, should by vertue of their bap- 
tisme be made ffree ; It is enacted and declared by this grand as- 
sembly, and the authority thereof, that the conferring of bap- 
tisme doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bond- 
age or fifreedome : that divers masters, ffreed from this doubt, 
may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity 
by permitting children, though slaves, or those of greater growth 
if capable to be admitted to that sacrament." -' The foregoing act 
was undoubtedly a distinct triumph for the forces of righteous- 
ness in the effort to encourage some masters to give their slaves 
full opportunitv to become Christians. It removed one obstruc- 
tion. When this fact is made clear the men of the seventeenth 
century are seen in a better light. 

Whereas we are now surrounded by Negroes and think of 
the present Virginia Negroes as constituents of a vast host of 
their race in the United States, conditions were far different 
in those days of which we have been writing. In 1624-'5 there 



27. Hening, vol. IT, p. 200. 



RKTjr.roTTs Dr:vr:i.oi'Mr:NT of tttk xr.r.Ro 23 

were only twenty-two Negroes in X'irginia ; -^ and even as late 
as 1649, thirty years after their first introduction into A'irginia, 
only three hundred were in the Colony.-^ In 1671 Gov. r>erkely 
stated that there were two thousand hlack slaves. •'"* In lSf63 /(5>f-^ 
Gov. Culpeper reports 3,000 hlacks.-''^ Toward the end of the 
century, however, the nnmhers of the hlacks increased very 
rapidly. These numbers enter into the reasoning concerning 
the seventeenth century and would seem to indicate that no one 
should be surprised' if the records of those days show little con- 
cerning the religious development of the Negro. The matter of 
an Indian massacre, the conquering of a wilderness, the arrival 
of orders, governors and emigrants from Europe, the raising 
of tobacco and the culture of silk-worms, very naturally, because 
of a popular demand to know about them, became matters of 
history rather than the inconspicuous lives of negro slaves on a 
plantation. Travellers had little opportunity to know their re- 
ligious state since it would hardly have been in good taste for 
visitors to delve into the lives of a host's slaves. We do rot do 
such things now. Whether one's Irish maid is Catholic or 
Protestant is hardly the subject of inquiry now when visiting. 
Whether our cook is Baptist or Methodist we generally omit to 
record in our letters, and certainly do not insert such items in 
our court records. These facts deserve consideration as a pos- 
sible explanation of the absence of a great mass of material 
dealing with the Negro's religious life. The Negro problem was 
not so clearly recognized in the seventeenth century as now. If 
we could have been sitting by the fireside when John was talking 
to Mann or William or Jacquelin about the slaves; and could 
have realized how anxious coming generations would be to know 
the facts, what a mass of information we should have copied. 

By an act of 1670 the Assembly declared that "all ser^-ants 
not being Christians imported into this colony by shipping shall 
be slaves for their lives." Those servants that come by land 



28. Hotten, Emigrants. 

29. P. Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II, "A New Description of 

Va.," p. 1. 

30. Hening, Vol. II, p. .515. 

31. From an account of Lord Culpeper's Compliance with Instruc- 
tions from the King, McDonald State Papers, Vol. VI. 



24 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

were to serve until thirty years of age, if boys or girls, and for 
twelve years, if men or women. ^^ 'pj^g ^Lct was primarily framed 
to settle the time of service of Indians captured by other nations 
and sold to the English, and next to settle who were slaves. 
Although the word Negro is not mentioned in the act it is evi- 
dent what it intended to cover when it speaks of "servants not' 
being Christians imported into this colony by shipping." 

Christianity thus became a valuable temporal asset to the 
slave. If the Negro happened to be sent in by shipping from 
New England, the West Indies, or from England, the fact that 
he came from a Christian country was sufficient in practice to 
guarantee him service in this country not longer than the time 
served by Christian servants. The territoriality of the term 
Christian was deemed sufficient proof of Christianity, that is, if 
one lived in a Christian country, one was considered a Christian 
without proof of the individual profession. Under this law 
great inconvenience was experienced by masters who were com- 
pelled to sell servants ; and further, inland immigration into 
Virginia from another state was practically prohibited to slave 
holders. Something had to be done. 

The preamble to the act of 1682 avers ^^ that many Negroes 
Moors, mulattoes and others born of heathenish or Moham- 
medan parentage or in such countries, have and may again be 
obtained, by "some well-disposed Christian" who "out of pious 
zeal" may convert them to Christianity and then be forced by 
circumstances to sell them ; but he cannot sell them as slaves in 
Virginia after conversion, but only as servants because of pre- 
vious laws. 

This state of affairs was considered a grievance by the col- 
ony, and an effort was made to remedy it. After the financial 
strain incident to Bacon's Rebellion, the Assembly repealed the 
law of 1670, and then enacted a law which made slaves ot all 
servants of non-Christian nationalities, coming into the colony, 
whether by sea or by land. This law applied to the purchase 
of servants, whether Christian or non-Christian, with the ex- 
ception of Turks and Moors in friendship with the English gov- 



32. Henin.t;, Vol. II, p. 283. 

33. Hening, Vol. II, p. 491. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 25 

ernment. This was a strictly economic measure and l)y it Chris- 
tianity after capture could not be used to effect freedom. 

Importers of slaves naturally disliked the losses sustained by 
returning Christian Negroes to the places from which they had 
been imported, or the losses incident to their removal to places 
where both Christian and heathen Negroes had to serve for 
life. It is almost needless to say that there was nothing in the 
act to make one think that there was the least hostility to spread- 
ing Christianity among slaves ; on the other hand it is clear that 
the act was strictly an economic one which permitted Christian 
Negroes to be enslaved'. 

To prove the interest of the officials of England in the welfare 
of Negroes in Virginia we may note the inquiries sent by com- 
mand of the Right Honorable, the Lords of the Committee of 
Foreign Plantations, to Sir William Berkeley Knight, Captain 
General and Governor in chief of his Majesty's Colony of Vir- 
ginia. 

Question No. 20 was : "What number of Whites, Black or 
mulattoes have been born or christened for these seven years 
last past or any other space of time?""'* Among similar in- 
teresting documents throwing light on our study is that which 
embodies the instructions given by King Charles to Lord Thomas 
Culpeper, who was Governor of Virginia. These instructions 
cover many points and not the least among the orders was that 
one wdiich commands that he shall endeavor to have a law passed 
which shall tend to restrain bad masters or overseers from the 
exercise of inhuman severity toward their Christian ^^ servants 
or slaves ; also that he is to endeavor to find out with the assist- 
ance of the Council and the Assembly, "the best means to facil- 
itate and encourage the Conversion of Negroes to the Christian 
Religion" and to exercise care that no harm should come to the 
persons or properties of the colonists. ^"^ The same instructions 
were sent to Francis Lord Howard of Effingham when he was 
in Virginia.^'^ The instructions are significant enough, but the 



34. McDonald State Papers, Vol. V, p. 21. 

35. Christian — White indentured. 

36. McDonald State Papers, Vol. VI, p. 43, § 65. 

37. Ibid, Vol. VI, p. 258, § 63. 



26 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

answers to them are of far more vital consequence for our pur- 
poses. Lord Culpeper declared that a law to protect slaves from 
ill-treatment had been passed, and concerning the second part of 
the instruction, declared, "Negroes are daily Converted to the 
Christian Religion, now they are to continue to be slaves for- 
ever." ^•'^ The answers are important coming just at this time 
since it will be remembered that Morgan Godwyn published "The 
Negro's and Indian's Advocate" in 1680 and "The Supplement" 
in 1681. In the light of the legislation in 1667 removing a se- 
rious obstacle to the baptism of slaves and with Lord Culpeper's 
compliance with his instructions before us, we are led to be- 
lieve that Godwyn was a special pleader. Of course, a man can 
see what he sets out to see in this world, and it is indisputable 
that crime or mere wrong-doing is more liable to attract atten- 
tion than the praiseworthy actions of thousands of men. One 
intoxicated man on a university campus attracts far more 
attention than the hundreds of men diligent in their application 
to their studies. Morgan Godwyn was looking for trouble and 
he found it. Another man looking for better things would 
have found them.s^ However, whatever Godwyn's findings 
were, we know that he was a Virginia parson and he must have 
expressed the feelings of many others interested in the Negroes' 
uplift even though he spoke his and their sentiments as it were, 
through a megaphone. 

Few relics of the seventeenth century are more valuable than 
the old Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex County. 
From this we shall quote two entries. Under the heading, 
"Christenings 1682, etc." we read, "Thomas Clincker ye sone 
of Thomas Clinker by Ginney Bess (a fifree Negro Woman) 
was baptized 5th of Aug. 1683. Mr. John Cocking Godfather." 
Under the heading "Christenings 1683 & 1684," we find, 
"Phillip Phillips Jane Phillips Sone &: Daughter of Thomas 



38. McDonald State Papers, Vol. VI. p. 63, § 65. 

39. A Journal of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, etc., of William 
Kdmundson, Pub. London 1774, p. 329. In a letter from the Bar- 
badoes in 1675 this prominent Friend wrote: "Many of the Blacks 
are convinced, and several of them confess to Truth, and Things 
here are peaceable, and in as good Order as can well be expected 
at present." 



REUGIOUS DEVELOPMKNT OF TIIK Nl'X'.KO 27 

& Eliza Phillips (both Capt. Creeks negroes) was baptized 2th 
of Xemb 1683." ^o 

The power of the Negro priest with his su])erstitious African 
rites was tremendous on the plantations. It has been said: "The 
priest in the African state has already been noted ; his realm 
alone — the province of religion and medicine — remained largely 
unaffected by the plantation system in many important partic- 
ulars. The Negro priest, therefore, early became an important 
figure on the plantation and found his function as the inter- 
preter of the supernatural, the comforter of the sorrowing, and 
as one who expressed, rudely, but picturesquely, the longing and 
disappointment and resentment of a stolen people." -^^ It would 
seem that the introduction of these priests — whether priests in 
Africa or self-appointed in America — was a constant men- 
ace to the Christianizing work done among the Negroes 
who were imported after their arrival, or even among 
those who preceded them to America. The Burgesses in 
1680 enacted that it was illegal for a negro or other 
slave to carry a club, gun, sword or weapon, and slaves must 
not leave the plantation without a certificate from the master 
or overseer and then only on particular and necessary occasions. 
The frequent meetings of slaves in large numbers under pre- 
tense of feasts and burials caused the fear of an uprising. This 
law, however, would hardly prevent them from attending church 
with their masters. 

When Governor Nicholson, near the end of the seventeenth 
century, w-as directed by the English authorities to recommend 
laws to the General Assembly for the education of the Indians 
and Negroes in the Christian faith, he complied, but the House 
of Burgesses, on June 2, 1699, returned this discouraging reply: 
"Negroes born in the cotmtry were generally baptized, but for 
Negroes imported, the gross barbarity and rudeness of their 
manners, the variety and strangeness of their languages, and the 
weakness and shallowness of their minds rendered it in a man- 



40. Original Parish Register, Christ Church, Middlesex County, 
Va., in Episcopal Theological Seminary Library, Alexandria, Va. 
Copy was published by the National Society of the Colonial Dames 
of America in the State of Virginia, 1897. 

41. The Negro Church, p. 5. 



28 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

ner impossible to attain to any progress in their conversion." ^^ 
This startling reply would seem to indicate that Africa at that 
time was not such an ideal place as some writers intimate. It 
further indicates that a godly care had been exercised in favor 
of the children of the early negroes since those "born in the 
[this] country were generally baptized." It indicates further 
that the task of Christianizing the late arrivals from Africa was 
a well-nigh hopeless one. This pessimistic response certainly 
boded no good for the future. Time alone was needed. The 
newly imported negroes were improved by contact with Chris- 
tian masters or Christian fellow slaves, and a change came with 
the birth of children. There is no new principle involved in the 
fear expressed by the Burgesses that the Christianization of 
those not born in this country was hopeless. The staid, old 
legislators were merely expressing the time-honored, yet homely 
principle, "It is hard to teach old dogs new tricks." Mission- 
aries, settlement workers, educators — all people interested in 
uplift work recognize the principle, and rarely expect results 
from the old, but rather from the young. 

The events of the eighteenth century, however, will prove 
that the members of the House of Burgesses even though ever 
so wise counsellors would not take high rank as prophets. 
Thousands of Negroes were converted before the end of that 
century and the seemingly impossible was proved to be possible. 

Let us briefly summarize. 

In the seventeenth century, 1619, the negro was first intro- 
duced into America. In 1625 at least one was baptized. In 
1641, '46, and '55 court records show interest in the spiritual 
welfare of Negroes. In 1661, the Council of Foreign Planta- 
tions in England recommended the procuring of ministers es- 
pecially for the work of preparing the Negroes for baptism. 
The state regularly frowned down the transgression of moral 
laws involving the blacks. In 1667, legislation was enacted tak- 
ing away one of the barriers to the baptism of the slaves. There 
were very few Negroes in Virginia up to 1650 and then the 
increase was so rapid that superstition is presumed to have made 



42. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial America & West Indies 
1699, § 473. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 29 

some pessimistic concerning the conversion of newly imported 
ones. The laws of 1670 and 1682 were economic primarily and 
only secondarily religious. Instructions to the Governors of 
Virginia show interest by English officials in the conversion of 
the negroes in Virginia. Gov. Culpeper reported progress in the 
work. Morgan Godwyn, once a Rector in Virginia, averred that 
little or nothing was done for the Negroes and intimated a had 
state of affairs in the early church government. Records in 
one of the few Parish registers extant show the baptism of 
Negro children. The House of Burgesses declared that \'ir- 
ginia born Negroes were baptized, but expressed little hope 
for the newly-imported blacks. The religious development of 
a race of savages must necessarily be slow, but the encouraging 
feature of it all is that a beginning occurred so soon after their 
arrival in America. After eighty-one years of the seventeenth 
century we must recognize that the reach between the religious 
status of the first Negroes imported in 1619, and the Christian, 
Mrginia-born children and grandchildren of these first bar- 
barians, is remarkable. 



30 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

It is evident that each century has had its distinctive work 
to do in the development of the reHgious life of the Negro. 
Although so much had been done for the Negroes in the seven- 
teenth century, yet the great importations of Negroes toward 
the end of that century made the task of Christianizing the 
newly-arrived ones appear almost hopeless to the gentlemen 
composing the \'irginia House of Burgesses. It was the busi- 
ness of the eighteenth century to manifest the undoubted su- 
periority of the Christian Negro, and to make the movement 
for their Christianization popular. A false step in this critical 
period of the Negroes' religious development would have been 
followed by circumstances too sad to contemplate. The opti- 
mism of a new-boni century was to supplant the pessimism of 
a dying one. 

As early as the year 1700, Mr. Commissary Blair wrote a let- 
ter to the Archbishop of Canterbury in which he stated that the 
ground-work in hand in Virginia was the revisal of the laws, 
which had been entrusted by the last legislature to a standing 
committee. Mr. Blair's opinion being desired by the committee 
concerning the government and the encouragement of the clergy, 
he not only gave that, but also put in "another shorter one for 
the encouragement of the Christian Education of our Negro 
and Indian Children." ^ It is very evident that such an influ- 
ential person would be a very helpful advocate in such a cause. 
At this time however, nothing consequential to the Negro grew 
out of the proposal, but better things were in store later on. 
In the meanwhile the baptisms continued.- 



1. Wm. Stevens Perry — Hist. Collections Relating to the Ameri- 
can Colonial Church — Mrginia — p. 112. 

2. Abingdon Parish Register, Gloucester Co., \'a. — "Susanna, a 
mulatto belonging to Joseph Coleman, baptized April 14, 1700." 

St. Peter's Register, New Kent County, Va.. p. 12. "Moll a negro 
girl belonging to Madam Field bapt. — , 170 — " "Frances and Kate 
Negroes belonging to Mr. Geo. Poindexter. Ijapt. Feby. 4th, 1704-5," 
p. 30. "Negroes belonging to Mrs. Alice Field: Peter, Muscadoras, 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT oi- THE NECKO 31 

In London on the 16th day of June. 1701, under Wilhani III, 
"The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts" 
was incorporated. This society held a meeting within a few 
days after its incorporation. Its formation was due to a desire 
to supply the want of religious institutions and privileges in 
America among the members of the Established Church, and 
secondarily, to extend the Gospel to the Indians and slaves.-^ 
The Society recognized its work to consist of three kinds: 
"The care and instruction of our people settled in the colonies: 
the conversion of the Indian savages, and the conversion of the 
Negroes." The last-mentioned work soon came to be the prin- 
cipal care of the society. Missionaries were sent to America 
and ministers preached sermons to the members in England 
telling them of thousands of Negroes in America under Chris- 
tian governments and living in Christian families, yet faring no 
better religiously than they did in Africa. Tracts were pub- 
lished and distributed among the slave owners urging them to 
greater care for the slaves. This society did excellent work in 
New York and South Carolina, but touched Virginia very 
lightly. There are two alternatives: either this colony "where, 
the plantation system reached its best development,"-* was ap- 
proximating its duty, or, the English directors feared that the 
forces of evil here would contaminate their missionaries. We 
think the iirst alternative is nearer true. 

The legislation of 1703 is very pertinent to our subject. We 
have seen that by the act of 1670 all servants imported, being 
Christians (and in practice from Christian lands) were not per- 
mitted to be held in life-long servitude. By the act of 1682 
Negroes and Mulattoes were subject to life-long servitude un- 
less they were of Christian parentage or were Christians them- 
selves before their first purchase. In the act of 1705. only per- 
sonal Christianity on their native heath, or freedom that could 



Mary. Phillis, Anne, Elizabeth, aduh. Baptized Januarj' ye 2nd. 17—, 

p. 12. 

Christ Church Register, p. 58, Middlesex County, Va.: "James 
Morris Son of Elizabeth A Mulatto Woman was Baptized by Mr. 
Andrew Jackson, March ye 15th. Anno Donii 170 5/6." 

3. The Gospel among the Slaves. Harrison and Barnes. 

4. The Negro 'Church, p. 4. 



32 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

be proved, in England or some other Christian country were 
considered sufficient grounds to prevent Negroes and Mulattoes 
from being enslaved for life.'' Their conversion to Christianity 
after being sold into the West Indies, or any Christian colonies, 
would not avail to effect their freedom. Christianity was now 
sufficient only to save the individual for Heaven, but it no longer 
availed to protect a Negro or Mulatto servant from being en- 
slaved for life, unless very improbable conditions were true, 
viz : if the Negro or Mulatto had been a Christian in Africa, or 
had been free before importation into Virginia. The incentive 
to become a Christian merely to stand a better chance for the 
life of an indentured servant instead of that of a slave was done 
away with by this act. 

In this same year, 1705, a law was passed which prevented 
Negroes, Mulattoes or Indians from holding any office, ecclesias- 
tical, civil or military.*' This must have been a serious blow to 
any power-loving priests from Africa who had been brought to 
America. That they struggled to maintain their sovereign sway 
over their credulous followers would seem to follow axio- 
matically. Since laws are usually remedial in their effect, is it 
not fair to infer that Negroes had held offices in the ecclesias- 
tical establishment before this date? In fact it was almost cer- 
tain that such was the case. 

The Negro certainly had no distinguished standing in Vir- 
ginia before the law. The Burgesses declared in 1705 that the 
Negro, Mulatto, and Indian slaves in Virginia should be "held, 
taken and adjudged to be real-estate (and not chattels)."" In 
1727 the slaves were to pass as chattels,'^ and in 1748 the two 
foregoing acts were repealed and slaves were to be considered 
as chattels personal.^ The amelioration after this was slow 
but steady. 

Practically all of the oldest Bruton Parish Register was de- 
stroyed to furnish wrappers for preserve jars.^** The binding 



5. Heniiig, Vol. TTT, pp. 447, 448. 

6. Hening, Vol. Ill, pp. 250-251. 

7. Hening, Vol. III. p. 333. 

8. Hening, Vol. IV, p. 223. 

9. Hening, Vol. V, pp. 438, 439. 

10. Historical Sketch of Bruton Church— W. A. R. Goodwin, p. 152. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 33 

or stub end of the book is still carefully protected in a steel safe 
inside a fireproof vault under the historic old church at Wil- 
liamsburg. In the preparation of tliis study, that stub was per- 
sonally examined, and strange to say, one of the few intelligible 
records that was saved from the preserve jar fate was the record 
of the baptism of a Negro. We dare not infer what other en- 
tries that page contained, but this record is a fact: "Daniel a 
Negro Bapt. November" [1711]. The figures 1711 were not 
saved from the hands of the \'andals. but the entry above this 
one was dated 1711 and the entry next below was dated the same. 
It is almost a certainty that the year 1711 is correct. This moves 
back the hitherto first known Negro baptism on that register 
thirty-six years. In the death list of the same period we find 
the deaths of Negroes recorded in the same list with the whites. 
Although we have no direct statement to the effect that these 
Negroes were Christians, still as Rev. E. Ruftin Jones has said, 
"it is probable that these Negroes were baptized members of 
the church." There were certainly numbers of Negroes baptized 
at that time. 11 Baptism in the Colonial days constituted real 
membership in the Established Church since there were no 
Bishops in America to confirm any, whether white or black. 
The Established Church made an effort (feeble it would seem) 
yet an eft'ort, to care for the souls of the Negroes. An impor- 
tant factor is here often overlooked but should be considered, 
the Church had to deal with the Negroes at a time when there 
were only a limited number of American born ones among them, 
and even these were often inattentive, careless and discouraging 
and were frequently violentl}- perturbed by the superstitions 
of the ones freshly imported. Both whites and blacks suft'ered 



11. Parish Register, St. Peter's, New Kent County, Va. : "Jno. 
a negro belonging to Mr. Wm. Clopton liapt. June ye 25th, 1710," 
p. 5. "Richard a negro child belonging to Capt. Richd Littlepage 
Baptized August ye 14th, 1711," p. 21. 

Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County. Va.: "Elizabeth a negro 
belonging to John Lewis. Esq. born June 1st baptd. 23d. 1716." "Eliz- 
abeth a negro baptized July ye 8th. 171fi, belonging to Mann Page 
Esq." 

These entries become voluminous as the years roll on. The ones 
here quoted are only a few chosen from the maiu'. 

—3 



34 REI.IGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

too. because of the poor quality of the clergy in the Colony near 
the beginning of this century. About 1720 the clergymen in 
A'irginia were considered bad,^- and some parishes had no min- 
ister at all. '2 \'irginia had 72,000 Whites and 23,000 Negroes 
in 1715.^"* In other words the old church in spite of tremendous 
odds did succeed in creating the taste for the Christian religion, 
and endeavored to feed the babes on the sincere milk of the 
Word ; the Presbyterians gave the Negroes a course in solid 
food; but the great, joyful banquet was spread before the hun- 
gering and thirsting blacks by the Baptists and Methodists later 
on in the century. It is absurd to unden^alue any of the factors 
active in the religious uplift. It seems, however, a great injus- 
tice to historical facts, to assert, in the face of the efforts of 
Mr. Commissary Blair, Rector of Bruton Parish, and other 
Episcopal rectors, that "it was as late as 1756 before any white 
minister had the piety and courage to demand instruction for 
the slaves." ^'' The Established Church did much more work 
for Negroes than it has ever been given credit for doing. 

In the year 1724 the Bishop of London directed inquiries to 
the clergy in Virginia concerning the state of the Church and 
its work. One question was, "Are there any Infidels,^ ""^ bond 
or free, within your Parish ; and what means are used for their 
conversion?"^' The answers returned by some of the rectors 
are very interesting and instructive. From York Hampton 
Parish, York County, Fran. Fontaine replies, "I know of no 
Infidels in my parish except Slaves. I exhort their :\Iasters to 
send them to me, to be instructed. And in order to their con- 
version I have set apart every Saturday in the Afternoon and 
catechise them at my Glebe House." ^^ George Robinson wrote 
from Bristol Parish in the upper part of James River: "None 



12. Perry— p. 257. 

13. Perry — p. 25 — ^Governor Drysdale's letter to Bishop of London. 

14. Chalmers' Amer. Colonies 11. 7. Quoted in Campbell's Hist, 
of Va., p. 383, note. 

15. Williams Hist, of the Negro Race in America, p. 131. 

16. Bishop Meade, Old Churches, Ministers, Families, p. note "In- 
fidel before 1730 in \'irffinia merely meant irreligious." 

17. Colonial Church — Perry. 

18. Ibid. p. 281. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 35 

that I know of except Negro slaves and a few Indian Servants. 
I have several times exhorted their Masters to send such of 
them as could speak English to Church to be catechised but they 
would not. Some masters instruct their Slaves at home, and 
so bring them to Baptism, but not many such." ''■* Emmanuel 
Jones of Petworths Parish, Gloucester Co., answered: "I have 
no Indians in my parish, but those several Infidels, Negro slaves 
brought from Africa, and such as are born in tlie Country, their 
masters very often bring them to read and send them to the 
church or minister to be further instructed that they may be 
baptized, and many are so." -*^ In Elizabeth City Parish, Eliza- 
beth City County, 2^ "The owners are generally careful to in- 
struct those that are capable of instruction and to bring them 
to baptism." Rev. James Falconer found it impossible to in- 
struct the newly-imported ones since they never learned to 
speak or understand English perfectly. James City parish -^ 
reports much the same. Mr. Thomas Dell, another rector com- 
plains of the distance the Negroes have to come and cites the 
fact that masters would not always let their slaves have horses. -'"^ 
At Accomac on the Eastern Shore many Negroes attended 
church and about 200 had been baptized.-"* Commissary James 
Blair, of Bruton Parish, Williamsburg,^"^ encouraged catechismg 
and baptizing the English speaking ones, and their owners be- 
came sureties for them at baptism. In Washington Parish -^> 
after the slaves had been duly instructed they were admitted to 
baptism and the Lord's Supper. An abundance of such evi- 
dence could be adduced, but the foregoing proves that some ef- 
forts had been exerted to provide for the Christian education of 
the beniglited blacks. It is further true that some masters 
were exceedingly careless concerning the spiritual welfare of 
their slaves in spite of the good examples set by others. The 



19. Perry Colonial Churches, p. 267. 

20. Ibid Colonial Churches, p. 287. 

21. Ibid Colonial Churches, p. 293. 

22. Ibid Colonial Churches, p. 265. 

23. Perry Colonial Churches, p. 2.55-256. 

24. Ibid Colonial Churches, p. 301. 

25. Ibid Colonial Churches, p. 299. 

26. Perry Colonial Church, p. 291. 



36 RELIGIOUS DE^VELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

same ainouiVL of energy, if expended now, would perhaps 
start a Welsh revival, hut the conditions were exceedingly uii- 
favorahle in the country during Colonial Virginia days for 
sfireading the Gospel among them. 

The act of 1680 concerning unlawful meetings of slaves, 
we may be sure, was not directed against the religious im- 
provement of slaves nor intended to prevent them attending 
church in company with their masters. In the early days ex- 
cept for the position of the seats in church and the order of 
communing, very little was heard of the color line in things 
religious. After the act of May, 1723, there could not possibly 
be any doubt on the subject of desiring the church attendance 
of Negroes, since that kind of assembly was expressly ex- 
cepted from the enactment against the meetings of great num- 
bers of Negroes and other slaves. The law not only excepted 
their Lord's day attendance but carried no prohibition against 
meeting at other times stipulated by lawful authority, for public 
worship.-" 

Rev. Hugh Jones, A. M., sometime Chaplain to the Honor- 
able Assembly and minister at Jamestown in Virginia, published 
a book in London in 1724 which included some account of the 
English and Negro inhabitants of the colony.-"' In that work he 
stated that "Several of the People" disapprove of baptizing In- 
dians and Negroes but he could easily refute their arguments, 
if such Indians or Negroes are good, sensible, understand Eng- 
lish, have been taught (or are willing to be taught), the prin- 
ciples of Christianity, and further, if such Indians or Negroes 
are kept to the observance of Christianity afterwards. Chris- 
tianity, he contended' improved them as servants. He had no 
faith in baptizing "wild Indians and new Negroes" who "ob- 
stinately persist in their own l)arbarous ways" since to do so 
aroused within him a question as to whether it was not "a Pros- 
titution of a Thing so sacred." 

In the same year that Hugh Jones issued his book, a very 
notable proposition was made by Commissary Blair for encour- 
aging the Christian Education of Indians, Negroes and Mulatto 



27. Hening, Vol. IV, pp. 128, 129. 

28. 'Vhv I 'resent State of X'irtiinia Hutih Jones pp. 70, 71. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT (iK TllK XKCKO 2>7 

Children.-" In this, the imported slaves are recognized as being 
"much more indocile," because of their failure to understand 
English, than the young slaves born in the Colony, if the young 
slave be baptized and be able to give a good account of the 
Creed, Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments in Open Churcli, 
before he is fourteen years of age, his master shall receive a 
certificate and this slave will be exempted from taxation while 
between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Of course, slaves 
who were not baptized and were unable to understand these mat- 
ters of faith were to be subject to taxation at fourteen years of 
age. The Commissary concludes his proposition: "It is humbly 
supposed the advantage of 4 years' difference in levies will have 
great effects to this purpose." Surely this matter of exempting 
Christian Negroes from taxes for a period, was nothing more 
than a proposition to pay the slave owaiers the equivalent of four 
years' taxes to have their slaves made Christians. It was fun- 
damentally a proposition to put the State into the business of pay- 
ing for Christians at so much per head. It was a crude way to 
make Christians, yet it was not a very surprising proposal ac- 
cording to the economists of that day, who. so frequently saw 
things only in terms of pounds, shillings and pence.-"'" It 
sounded, however, as if the Commissary were at his wit's end. 
So far as is known nothing came of the great proposition. Bap- 
tisms took place with greater frequency, but the state did not 
pay for the slave-owner's godliness or the righteousness of the 
slaves. In the light of this proposition it should be very evident 
that the Negro's religious training was not ideal ; yet this is 
very different from asserting that nothing was done for the Ne- 
gro at all. 

In the mass of contradictory evidence of this period we can 
be certain that something was done and something was left 
undone. How^ like a voice in the present speaks ]\Ir. Lang in 



29. Perry Colonial Church Papers, p. 344. 

30. Commissary Blair urged upon Seymour, the British Attorney- 
General, the necessity of a grant of two thousand pounds to estab- 
lish a college in X'irginia to train young men for the ministry; and 
even ventured to remind him that the people of \'irginia had souls. 
"Souls," cried Seymour, "dainii your souls. Make tobacco." Quoted in 
foot-note of R. R. Howison's History of Va., pp. 157, 158. 



38 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

1726. In a letter to the Bishop of London, he refers to the 
fondness of some persons for bringing Negro servants to Bap- 
tism as soon as they know the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Com- 
mandments; and then goes on to state that the Negroes after 
that Hve sometimes without marriage ties or common decency, 
just as if they were pagans instead of Christians. ^^ The God- 
fathers and Godmothers, too, often fail to perform their proper 
duties because of ignorance. His message is not new ; it is not 
old ; it is universal. It is almost unquestionable that the same 
breach between profession and performance has ever existed 
and ever will, with varying degrees of success in approaching 
the ideal. His complaint sounds like one heard on the rostrum 
crying against wickedness, yet offering no way out. Undoubt- 
edly many an Elijah in those days believed that he w^as the only 
one left to bow the knee, and would have been surprised, had he 
looked around him and seen the many righteous. 

The Princess Anne County Records for 1727 show that David 
James, a Negro boy, was ordered to be bound to ]\Ir. James 
Isadel, "who is to teach him to read ye bible distinctly also ye 
trade of a gunsmith that he carry him to ye Clark's ofifice & 
take indenture to that purpose." ''^ This custom of including 
Bible training in the indenture for apprenticeship was not un- 
common and was a very praiseworthy one, since it must have 
lead to the dissemination of Christian education to some extent. 
In the. midst of the primaeval darkness of the African mind 
even a little spiritual light meant progress. 

Among the big planters of an early day many had a sincere 
interest in the religious welfare of their servants. For instance 
Mr. Robert Carter, known as "King" Carter of "Corotoman," 
rebuilt the historic Christ's Church of Lancaster County about 
1732 .-i.". The agreement on the vestry book showed that he re- 
served one-fourth of the building for his tenants and servants. 
Such consideration for his dependents as Mr. Carter showed is 
illustrative of the endeavors of the better class of masters in 
caring for their slaves religiously. 



31. Perry — Colonial Churcli Papers, pp. 34r)-348. 

32. Princess Anne Conrt Records cited in \'a. Mag. of History 
Vol. II, p. 429. 

33. Meade Old Clmrchcs, \'ol. II, p. llfi. 



RKi.TCious r)KvKT.op>rKxT or tiik negro 39 

The fact that there were two or more kinds of masters, the 
good, had and indifferent, mnst not he forgotten in stndying the 
relationshi]) of the two races he fore 1863. This fact, too, mnst 
he rememhered: the Negro was not merely to have religion 
ponred' into him, after the fashion which we ado])t in giving 
medicine to children, hnt there was a tremendous responsiljility 
on him to show a life that proved the presence of Christianity 
in his heart. Failure to do this, would discourage many a slave- 
holder, douhtful as to the ahility of the slave to assimilate the 
strength-giving parts of religion. That there was some cause to 
doubt the efficacy of religious influences upon him may be seen 
by the following legislation. The slaves, as the preamble to an 
act of the Burgesses of 1732, forbidding slaves to serve as wit- 
nesses except in the trial of another slave for a capital offense, 
recites, had hitherto been privileged to serve as witnesses after 
they had professed Christianity and had been able to give some 
account of Christian principles, "but forasmuch as they are 
people of such base and corrupt natures, that the credit of their 
testimony cannot be certainly depended upon" the privilege of 
serving as witnesses save as specified in the preamble above was 
denied to them after this time.^^ 

Doubtless those who were supposed to be interested in the 
instruction of Negroes met much to discourage them, much to 
weaken their faith. In a letter which the Rev. Charles Bridges 
of St. Paul's Parish, Hanover County, wrote to the Bishop of 
London, the reverend old gentleman in A'irginia felt that he 
needed encouragement in securing funds for instructing Ne- 
groes. He complained that both he and the Commissary grew 
old in years and the world began to hang heavy on them. He 
aroused himself from a nap and called upon the Commissary; 
but sleep had claimed him by that time and then he was ready to 
fall asleep again himself. ^''^ What could possibly be expected of 
sleepy old men in such a cause? The most intelligent, mission- 
ary secretaries of the present day would have found tremen- 
dous obstacles in their way to perform the great task of Chris- 
tianizing the Negroes ; yet these agents were so old and so 
lacking in enthusiasm in the work that they fell asleep while 



34. Hening, Vol. IV, p. 327. 

35. Meade Old Cliurches, Vol. T. p. 419. 



40 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

talking on the subject. It cannot be doubted that these men 
had an interest in the Negroes — Commissary Blair's attitude 
during his younger years proved his devotion to the cause — but, 
if it be assumed even for a second, that these men were the 
leaders, how feeble must have been the efforts of those that 
they led. Yet, "many of the colored children were baptized 
and some of them taught the catechism," in spite of the depres- 
sion of this period, which may so well be likened to the last days 
of the wanderings of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness. 
New leaders and a new spirit were needed, if they were to reach 
the Promised Land. 

Rev. Anthony Gavin was a type of the virile manhood of his 
day which was destined to bring things to pass for the Ne- 
groes' uplift. Other men such as he must have been in the 
Established Church. This man was given an easy Parish, but 
the challenge of a hard, frontier Parish attracted his attention. 
He went to serve it, and on his first journey from end to end 
of it, baptized 229 whites, 172 blacks. 15 Quakers and 2 Ana- 
baptists.'^i^ This was in 1738. In 1742 Elijah Baker was born 
in Lunenburg County.-'' The birth of this man is notable since 
he as a Baptist elder became a power in the country between 
Richmond and Hampton, and undoubtedly influenced many Ne- 
groes to be baptized. In 1743 a young Scotchman came into 
Hanover County with a book of Whitefield's sermons. Several 
persons read them and soon a small congregation was formed. 
■Samuel Davies was sent down to Virginia by the Presbytery as 
the pastor for these people and in a few years had a flourishing 
work started which extended from Hanover into Henrico, Gooch- 
land. Caroline and Louisa Counties."'^ The Rev. John Todd, 



36. Perry — Colonial Church Papers, pp. 360, 361. 

37. James B. Taylor, Lives of Va. Baptist Ministers, p. 142. 

38. Foote's Sketches. Also see, 

Letters from the Rev. Samuel Davies and Others; shewing. The 
State of RELIGION in Virginia, South Carolina, &c. PARTICU- 
LARLY among the NEGROES. 

PROV. XXV, 25. 
As cold water to a tliirsty Soul, so is good News from a far Country. 

LONDON. 
Printed by J. and W. Oliver, in Bartholomew — Close 

MDCCLXI 



KKLIGIOL'S DlCVi;UJl'JMi:XT oF TllK NKGRO 41 

another Presbyterian, also oanic into I Iano\er, and tlicir arri\ al 
marks an epoch in the rehgions development of the Negro. These 
men were wilHng and anxious to aid the Negro. Perhaps they 
took courage from the Apostle Paul's words reminding the Cor- 
inthians that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
mighty, not many noble, are called." At any rate they felt that 
the work among the Negroes was an opportunity for real service 
and they grasped the opportunity. 

Bishop McTyeire of the Methodist Church, referring to the 
work of Rev. Samuel Davies in llanover County, tells of the 
Presbyterian minister's arrival there in 1747 with a license from 
the General Court to preach at four meeting-houses, and then 
eulogizes his efforts in this striking language : "The work was 
such as angels might approve." In a few years the young divine 
had gathered about three hundred communicants, had instructed 
many Negroes, and had baptized forty.-"**^ In a letter to Dr. 
Doddridge dated Oct. 2nd, 1750, Rev. Davies states that num- 
bers of Negroes have been proselyted to Christianity and bap- 
tized. These seem to be "the genuine seed of Abraham by 
Faith." A few of them he permitted to partake of the Lord's 
Supper. "Sundry Catechisms" he expected to add to the Church 
at some later day.'*" With the burning desire of the Negroes to 
learn of Christ we may be assured that such a character as Rev. 
Mr. Davies lost no opportunities to ground thes6 blacks in the 
fundamental truths of Scripture. Rev. Mr. John Todd and Re\ . 
~S[r. Wright were also participants in this good work. They re- 
port in a series of letters to Messrs. Joseph and Benjamin For- 
fitt of London the great work that is in progress among the 
Negroes.'*^ The Messrs. Forfitt had been sending books to A'ir- 
ginia and the Presbyterian Ministers were literally besieged by 
whites and blacks to get one or more, when a consignment was 
readv for distribution. These letters were written between 1758 
and 1761. All of them find the neglect of the Negroes, in things 
religious, appalling. ]\Ir. Davies knows of only one minister 
within two hundred miles of Hanover zealous in that work; 



39. History of Methodism. H. N. McTyeire. p. 2:VA. 

40. Perry — Colonial Church Papers, pp. 368-:571. 

41. "Letters from the Rev. Samuel Davies and others." 



42 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

Negroes are generally instructed or left uninstructed according 
to the character of the clergy^^ Baptisms continue and most 
of the Negroes act as "becometh Christians," but some fail. 
He delights especially in looking up at the Slave gallery and there 
seeing the Negroes who can read assisting the beginners in find- 
ing places in their hymn-books, and "then all breaking out in a 
torrent of sacred harmony, enough to bear away the whole 
congregation to heaven." ^^ 

^Ir. Todd finds that by 1758 some of the Negroes can read 
the Bible ; others are beginning to read ; others can spell ; and 
still others are just learning the alphabet. The conditions among 
them are vastly improved. The former desecration of the Sab- 
bath by "frolicking, dancing, and other profane courses" has 
been supplanted by attending Church, learning to read in their 
homes, praying, and singing God's praises. Their appearance 
as "afifectionate serious Christians" at the communion table was 
considered especially inspiring.^"* The Rev. Mr. Wright reported 
the Negroes anxious for books and thought them as eminent 
Christians as he serv'ed. The religious ones among them, he 
considered, "the most docile, unenthusiastic converts" he had 
ever read of or seen. Although his work was not progressing 
very well among the whites, he found much solace in his work 
for the blacks. The harvests were so abundant in \"irginia that 
he feared neither the masters nor the slaves would have much 
time to devote to their books during that particular year."*^ In 
1761, he could report that between thirty and forty of Colonel 
Cary's Negroes were under religious impressions. The Negroes' 
struggles after godliness were truly inspiring. Capt. Bell, a 
brother-in-law of Colonel Cary, found his slaves benefited by 
preaching and the learning. His slaves came seventeen miles to 
reach ^Tr. Wright's nearest preaching place. The slaves were 
especially anxious for "Dr. AA'att's Psalms and Hymns." 

With such facts before them how could the ^Messrs. Forfitt 
refuse to send more books? These letters give us a valuable 



42. "Letters from the Rev. Samuel Davies and others," pp. 8, 9. 

43. Il)id. p. 14. 

44. Davies' Letters, pp. 15, 1«, 23, 24. Also Footc's Sketches, p. 47. 

45. Davies' Letters, pp. 11, 12, 18, 19, 28, 29. 



KKl^lGlULS DKVKLUl'MKXT UF TUK NEGRO 43 

insight into the hfe of that day. They are to be read, however, 
witli these facts before us : First, the Episcopal Clergy were not 
over-friendly to the Presbyterians, and the lack of friendliness 
was very probably retaliated ; and secondly, these letters were 
sent to London to encourage the sending of more books, hence 
the need for them was made very plain. There can be no doubt, 
however, of the great work done by these early Presbyterians. 
The Negroes not only flocked to their ser\'ices, but the white 
masters who attended were compelled to hear tlic doctrine of 
enlightenment and conversion for their slaves from the lips of 
men who could present the facts forcefully. In the midst of 
the dread of a slave uprising in connection with the French and 
Indian War, Christianity for the Negroes was urged as the one 
sure protection from such a horrible probability. 

There is a curiosity implanted in many that causes us to 
enjoy looking into the private thoughts of others as expressed 
in diaries. The following extracts from the diary of Col. James 
Gordon, a staunch Presbyterian of Lancaster County, show the 
interest of a private individual in the Negroes : 

"July 15. 1759, Lilla C. and ^lolly went to Church. 1 read 
a sermon to the Negroes. P. 107. 

"August 23, 1759, Gave several books among the Negroes. 
P. 10.S. 

"Aug. 24, 1759. Went to meeting to-day, where we all parted 
with Mr. Todd. Our Negroes have attended sermons these four 
days. P. 109. 

"Dec. 25, 1759. Some of our Negroes got drunk, that has 
given me some uneasiness."*" P. 112. 

"]\Iay 26, 1760. \\'ent to meeting to-day — a pretty large com- 
panv of the common people &* negroes, but very few gentlemen. 
The gentlemen that even incline to come are afraid of being 
laughed at. ]\Ir. ]\Iinis [one of the Parsons] endeavors to make 
it a scandalous thing. P. 199. 

"Dec. 27 , 1760. Went to meeting — heard Mr. Hunt at night. 
Mr. Caldwell preached — seventy or eighty of the negroes there. 
Blessed be my God & Lord Tesus Christ, these are comfortable 



46. Win. and Marj- Quarterly, \ol. XI, No. 



44 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

times — the' I have had the tooth-ache & headache for these 
three weeks near. P. 205. 

"Sunday 16 Aug. 17'61. Several strange negroes came to 
Mr. Criswell to he instructed in which he takes great pains. 
P. 222. 

"Sept. 22. l/Ol. Making out lottery scheme to raise £300 for 
our meeting liouse.'*" P. 224. 

"April 24, 1763. This day the Lord's Supper w^as administered 
to about 90 whites & 23 blacks, more th.an we ever had before 
a vast number of people.^"* P. 4. 

"Aug. 26, 1763. This evening I had the comfort of receiving 
a letter from Rev. George U kite field who landed this day at 
Urbana. P. 8. 

"Sept. 4, 1763. Mr. A\"hitefield preached to a crowded house. 
]\Ir. \y. was obliged to make the negroes go out to make room 
for the white people. Several, black & white could not get 
room. P. 8. 

"Sept. 11, 1763. The Lord's Supper was administered to 
about 115 white & 85 black coiumunicants. P. 9. 

"Xmas Sunday 1763. [Several] went with us to meeting, 
where Mr. Waddell-*-' administered the sacrament to about 130 
black & white." P. 10. 

Another important Journal is that written by the interesting, 
straight-laced Presbyterian from the North, Philip Vickers Fith- 
ian, who came into the aristocratic life of Councillor Carter's 
family at Xomini Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia and 
served there as tutor during the years 1773-1774. The gay life 
in A^irginia shocked him while at the same time interesting him 
thoroughly. From a Journal ""' which Fithian kept, many inter- 
esting facts concerning Negroes during colonial times may be 
gleaned. On Sunday, Jan. 30th, 1774, he dispersed a large 



47. Wm. and Mary Quarterly, Vol. XI, No. 3. 

48. Wm. and Mary Quarterly. Vol. XII, No. 1. 

49. Mr. Waddell was a l)lind preacher. Settled in Lancaster and 
Northumberland Counties from 17r)2 to 1788. He married one of 
Col. Gordon's daughters. See Foote's Sketches in \'irginia, I, 307- 
387. 

50. I'hilip Vickers Fitliian. Journals and Letters. 



KKLlGloLS Dl;\'KU)l'Mi:x'r oF T 1 1 !•; \I-:(",K() 45 

crowd of the Negroes, and two of ilie Carter boys, found danc- 
ing in his schoolroom. On Easter Sunday all came out "lliirh. 
Low, Black, White," hut on Easter Monday, a holiday, the Ne- 
groes had dispersed to cock fights in the country. Sunda)- ob- 
servance, or rather the lack of it, was especially shocking to him 
and he makes out a case favorable to the better observance in 
the North. The Negroes worked their plots of ground, had cock 
fights, cut wood, etc.. on Sunday he claimed, and "by five o'clock 
on Saturday every face (especially the Negroes) lo(jks festive 
and cheerful — all the lower class of People, & the Servants & 
the Slaves, consider it as a Day of Pleasure & amusement, & 
spend it in such Diversion, as they severally chose." Old Dadda 
Gumby, however, was too much for the young Presbyterian when 
he chided him for staying away from church because of hot 
weather, while he, though only an old Negro, loved the Lord 
enough to go to church on foot. It would seem therefore that 
at least one old Negro was alive to carry forward the banner 
in spite of the supposed iniquities. 

The baptisms had now even before the coming of Rev. Mr. 
•Davies, and his colleagues, grown very frequent in X'irginia."^ 
In the old record book of P.ruton Parish, there are 1,122 Negro 
baptisms recorded between 1746 and 1797.-''- George Wash- 
ington, who owned slaves in the Parish, had eleven of his Ne- 
groes baptized between 1762 and 1768 inclusive. Mr. Frederick 
Bryan, Jr., had two Negroes baptized in the latter year, and their 
entry on the Register constituted an unusually interesting array 



51. Albemarle Parish. — Sussex County. 

Name — Sex — Owner's Name — given in montli day yr. Christened 

By whom Born 
Tom a boy Wm. Pettway same Deer. 15 1740 July 3. 1757 
Ede a girl Sylvanus Stokes same Jany 29 174^ 6th Jany 174 5/6 

3 sureties 
Lucy a girl William Cook same April 23 1742 May 5th 1742 

3 sureties 
Sam a boy Capt. Gee same Novr. 20 1742 Deer. 12th. 1742 

Will a boy Robt. Nicholson same March 19 174^ Sept. 23. 1744 
As the years roll on whole pages of the register are taken up l)y 
the names of Negroes. 

52. Historical Sketch of Bruton Church — W. A. R. Goodwin, p. 
153. 



46 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

of names: "April 10th 1768. Adam & Eve: Twins, Son and 
Daughter of Sail, Belonging to Frederick Bryan, Jr." Public 
opinion had become set on this subject, at least, and the days of 
doubt were over. Henceforward through this century the Ne- 
gro is entrusted with more and more liberty while in the pursuit 
of things religious. The Christian Negro was a fixture in our 
civilization. Optimism had at last supplanted pessimism. 

In 1747-48, some Aloravians or United Brethren from Beth- 
lehem, Pa., undertook long and tedious journeys through Mary- 
land, \'irginia and the borders of North Carolina for the pur- 
pose of preaching the Gospel to the Negroes. The blacks eagerly 
received their messages. The proprietors of the slaves, however, 
did not care for strangers to instruct their Negroes, since they 
had their own ministers paid to do the work. This opposition 
on the part of the slave-owners caused the Moravians to desist 
from their efforts in this direction.-^-" 

The Quakers were among the most consistent friends of the 
Negro, ^^■e have noticed in the previous chapter, the work of 
George Fox and William Edmundson in the Barbadoes for the 
religious training of the Negroes, rnd we know that the influ- 
ence of these pioneers was never lost on later generations. 

John W'oolman when travelling in Mrginia in 1757 came to 
the Western Branch Yearly meeting — between Smithfield and 
Suffolk — and there declared in a spirited speech that he was 
interested in the slaves and believed that if the people were di- 
vested of selfishness, the same good spirit that gave the Scrip- 
tures would engage them to teach the Negroes how to read in 
order that the slaves might be benefited by reading God's Holy 
Word.^"* The Friends Discipline which is authoritative, also 
sounds a certain note in favor of Christianizing the Negro. In 
1759 it says: "And it is the desire & advice of this Meeting that 
none amongst us be Concerned in the Importing Negro Slaves 
from their own Country or elsewhere, & that all Friends who have 
any of them, do treat them with humanity, and in a Christian 
manner, & as much as in them Lies, make them acquainted with 
the Principles of the Christian Religion, & inculcate Morality 



53. Gospel among the Slaves. Harrison and Barnes. P. 48. 

54. Life and Travels of John Woolman. pp. GO, 67. 



RKLTGTOrS DIvVKT.OPMKXT OI" Till- XKCKO 47 

in them." ^" Tlie revisions of llie Discipline in ISO'i and 1<S21 
declare that all the Negroes held in I'riends' families were to be 
treated with kindness; and as ohjects of the common salvation 
were t(t ])e taught the ])rincii)les of the Christian religion, etc.-''"' 

There is always the possibility that some may so far forget 
the provisions for church attendance during the eighteenth cen- 
tury as to lalior under the impression that simph- because the 
Negroes had practically no separate churches, therefore they 
had no chance to develop their religious natures. Such a sup])o- 
sition is incorrect. Almost any reference to the religious life 
of the Negro during the colonial days makes mention of the free 
attendance of the blacks in the white churches. Of course in 
the early days there were poor heating arrangements in the 
churches — none in some — and this made church going something 
of a hardship in winter. It even makes us shiver now to think 
of sitting in such cold, damp places for sermons one and two 
hours long. From the present tendency of the Negro to prefer 
heat to cold, we may surmise that not a very great percent of 
them struggled through the mud of midwinter roads in X'irginia, 
only to reach a church, cold and damp, in which the minister 
would warn his flock to escape the discomforts of everlasting 
fire ! That the summer attendance was good we have no occa- 
sion to doubt. The social feature of the country church meant 
much even when the preaching was poor. 

A very interesting letter written in April, 1765, is preserved, 
which gives an account of "Sir. W'hitefield preaching in old Bland- 
ford Church, Bristol Parish. s" Mr. W. G. Stanard, Secretary 
and Librarian of the Mrginia Historical Society, believes that 
the writer of this letter was Mr. Robert Boiling of Chellow, 
who, as a great-great-grandson of the Princess Pocahontas, 
wielded his literary tomahawk with as great dexterity as his 
Indian ancestors did theirs of stone. Mr. \\'hitefield's sermon 
was evidently disgusting to that writer and he is especially sar- 
castic in ridiculing Mr. Wdiitefield's efiforts to shed tears. The 
lamentations of the Africans in the gallery, he claimed, are sup- 



55. Ms. Discipline of 1759. 

56. Discipline of the Yearly Meeting of Friends Held in Baltimore. 

57. Rev. P. Slaughter— A History of Bristol Parish, \'a.. pp. 23-2r). 



48 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

posed to have relieved the eminent divine from the drudgery of 
weeping himself, but the objection was then urged that such a 
course was unjustifiable as contrary' to the Scriptual injunction 
against causing others to labor on the Sabbath. There can be 
no question that Negroes were constantly in attendance at the 
white churches on preaching days, and further, were considered 
very sympathetic listeners. 

The letters of Rev. Thomas Rankin in 1776 show that the 
audiences that sat under his preaching were intensely emotional 
and also mixed. "'•'^ On Sunday, June 30th. 1776, he relates that 
hundreds fell out on the floor and on all sides were nothing but 
streaming eyes, faces bathed with tears and nothing" was audible 
but groans and cries after God and the Redeemer. "The Chapel 
was full of white and black." On Sunday, July 7th, when preach- 
ing near the home of Rev. Devereux Jarratt, he was frequently 
compelled to stop his sermon and beg the people to compose 
themselves. His pleading was in vain : some were on their 
knees, some on their faces, some were "crying mightily to God,'" 
hundreds of Negroes were among them with the tears streaming 
down their lilack cheeks. At Ronoaky Chapel where he preached 
on Sunday, July 21, more than twice as many persons were pres- 
ent as could be accommodated in the house. "In general, the 
white people were within the Chapel, and the Black People with- 
out. The windows being all open, everyone could hear, and 
hundreds felt the word of God." This last passage was quoted 
in order that the first of the two sentences would not stand alone, 
and permit some to continue to distort the facts in the case. 
The first part of this passage has been frequently quoted to 
prove that the whites cared little for the religious training of the 
blacks, by intimating that those outside could not hear the 
spoken word: but the Rev. Mr. Rankin shows such inferences 
to be false by the explanation that all could hear. Judging by 
the experiences of some of our friends who have attended great, 
packed meetings in midsummer, even in these days of soap and 
civilization, those who were outside had chosen the better part. 



58. Pp. 30, 31. Brief Narrative of tlie Revival of Religion in \'ir- 
ffinia. 



KKl.IGlors DKVKLOl'.MKXT oi' TllK NKGRO 49 

The Methodists early went on record as op])osed to slavery. 
It was John Wesley who uttered that much quoted sentence: 
"Slavery is the sum of all villainies." The early Methodists 
came from England and had no understanding' of the sla\'ery 
system as it existed in Virginia, hut attacked it nevertheless. 
The slave-owners were soon incensed at this and forhade the 
]\Iethodists admittance to their plantations to teach their Ne- 
groes. Thus, their religious work was hadly handicapped at the 
outset."''' The Methodists, howe\er, hravely stuck to their task 
of Christianizing the Negroes. In 1780 a Conference called in 
Baltimore required the traveling preachers to set free any slaves 
they might possess. ^*^ Similar legislation followed. The crown- 
ing glory of the position of the Methodists, however, is seen in a 
query and an answer in 1787. Query: "What directions shall 
we give for the promotion of the spiritual welfare of the colored 
people?" Answer: "We conjure all our ministers and preach- 
ers, hy the love of God, and the salvation of souls, and do require 
them, hy all the authority that is invested in us, to leave nothing 
undone for the spiritual benefit and salvation of them, within 
their respective circuits or districts ; and for this purpose to 
embrace every opportunity for enquiring into the state of their 
souls, and to unite in Society those who appear to have a real 
desire of fleeing from the wrath to come ; to meet such in class, 
and to exercise the whole Methodist discipline among them." "^ 
This was a positive policy for energetically Christianizing Ne- 
groes. 

The Quakers after making a good beginning were seriously 

discredited in their work in \"irginia after their failure to par- 
ticipate in the Revolutionary War. They had, like the [Method- 
ists, early taken a stand against slavery. Their sphere was some- 
w^hat limited, but they did well within that sphere. In 1781 
and 1782 and later on, they appointed committees to care for the 
Education and Religious Instruction of Negroes set free as well 



59. Asbur.v's Journal, \ol. II, p. 71; \'ol. III. pp. 253, 257; Ben- 
nett, p. 547. 

60. Historj- of Methodism — H. N. McTyeire, p. 375. 

61. Ibid., p. 3S1. 

—4 



50 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

as those still held in bondage/' 2 This matter became of so great 
importance that the Baltimore Yearly Meetings with jurisdiction 
over A'irginia, in 1785, 1/90, 1791, 1793 and 1808 instructed its 
delegates to take up and press the business on the several meet- 
ings there represented. The Yearly Meeting was interested in 
"the Spiritual and Temporal Welfare," "the religious and school 
education of the children of the black people," "further efiforts 
in favor of this people," and felt that this watchful care was 
necessary for the Friends, because "of our high profession of 
Justice & Equity." Joshua Evans, a Quaker, during a long trip 
in A'irginia in 1796 and 1797, held meetings for Negroes and 
found that they "sat sohdly" and "appeared tender." ''^ One 
feature of the Friends' work for Negroes is very interesting. 
Upon the authority of Mr. Kirk Brown, Keeper of Friends' 
Records at Park Avenue Meeting House, Baltimore, we can say 
that although such zeal is shown in caring for the Negroes, none 
of that race became members of the Friends' Church, so far as 
the voluminous records in his possession show.*''* 

One of the most interesting characters of that day was Rev. 
Devereux Jarratt, an able man, one of the Episcopal divines of 
the eighteenth century who did his duty well. Bishop Meade 
cites the pious conduct of this man very frequently as an in- 
stance of the godly Christian minister. The Methodists owe 
much to the protection and comfort which he gave to them when 
they entered this state. Indeed, the man was so humble and so 
superior in his general conception of the duties of a Christian 
minister that we are driven to believe that some of the great 
results attained by the Methodists in their work among the Ne- 



62. Ms. Minutes of Hopewell Monthly Meeting-Book B. 1777-1791, 
p. 190. Ms. minutes of Warrington and Fairfax Quarterly Meeting 
1776-1787, p. 123. Ms. minutes Goose Creek Monthly Meeting 1785- 
1818, pp. 533, 534. Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends 1782. Ms. 
Minutes of the Fairfax Monthly Meeting, 1776-1802, p. 105 (6th Mo. 
1779), p. 110 (8th Mo. 1779), p. 124. (12th. Mo. 1779), p. 243. (10th 
Mo. 1782). 

63. Journal of the Life, Travels, etc., of Joshua Evans, pp. 141, 
167. 

64. A case has come under our notice recently where a Negro be- 
came a Friend in the State of Ohio. 



RELIGIOl'S ni'VKI.OPMENT OI* Till'; NEGRO 51 

groes were directly ascribable to the efforts of Rev. Mr. Jar- 
ratt. He notes a revival of interest in thinti^s religious about 
1765. and finds the revival growing greall\- in the latter part 
of 1775 and the first part of 1776. Thus, as the Revolutionary 
War began and when many of the clergy of the Established 
Church were discredited as Tories, the Presbyterians, Methodists 
and Baptists were reaping a rich harvest of human souls. The 
Negro was benefited by this religious upheaval and from all 
accounts the emotionalism of the whites under religious excite- 
ment during that period was the equal of anything the Negro 
has been able to attain emotionally since.*''' 

\Mien Bishop Coke was in Accomac County, Virginia, Nov. 
29, 1784, he wrote that he had heard Harry, Bishop Asbury's 
black, preach several times and he believed that this Negro who 
could not read was one of the best preachers in the world. ''^^ In 
]\Iecklenburg County, Coke bore testimony against slavery and 
tried out his method of delivering such testimony without giv- 
ing much offense. It was simply this, he first exhorted the slaves 
to be dutiful to their masters and then the whites would receive 
in good part whatever he had to say.'"'" 

About this same time, in 1780, the First Baptist Church in 
Richmond began its distinguished career with only fourteen 
members.*'^ This church did yeoman service in caring for the 
spiritual welfare of the Negroes. It is a matter of deep regret 
that so few individual churches made competition sharp in this 
type of well-doing. 

' We have mentioned the hysteria during the Methodist meetings 
in which the Negroes evidently had their part. From the ac- 
counts of prominent Baptist historians «" the emotionalism ex- 
hibited during the revivals from 1785 to 1791 was also amazing. 
It was not unusual for a large proportion of the congregation 
to be prostrate on the floor; some of them lost the use of their 



65. A Brief Narrative of the Revival of Religion in Virginia, pp. 

12, 13. 

66. Coke's Journal, p. 18. 

67. Ibid, p. 37. 

68. The First Century of the First Baptist Church, p. n.5. 

69. Benedict, History of the Baptists, pp. 90. 91; Semple, R. B., 
Hist, of the Baptists in Va., p. 10. 



52 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

limbs ; some were screaming, others shouting hosannas, groan- 
ing, or weeping; preachers were scattered through this mass of 
humanity, some exhorting at tlie tops of their voices, others 
praying, still others in heated argumentation with sinners; all 
excited. Some preachers endeavored to curb this state of alTairs 
while others fanned the tlames as though they were sent from 
on high. It is worthy of note that the work was more extensive 
and more converts were added where the greatest excitement 
prevailed. If the Anglo-Saxon with his faculties long accus- 
tomed to perfect coordination lost control in such religious 
awakenings, what must have been the conditions among the 
demonstrative, emotional Africans. It is certain that vast num- 
bers of the Negroes became Baptists. 

The Baptists were at first, strongly opposed to slavery, but 
they did not arouse the suspicions of the slave-owners like the 
Methodists and Quakers. Perhaps the expressions of individ- 
uals, or by local associations, did not sound quite so pretentious 
as the constant declarations of General Conferences or Yearly 
Aleetings. As early as 1758 or 1759, William ]\Iurphy and 
Philip Mulkey established the Bluestone church of the Meherrin 
Association. Its membership consisted of "several white mem- 
bers, besides a large number of blacks."''*' Lasting good was 
done to the Negroes in this congregation. At Charles City, in 
the Dover Association, the Negroes were very much in evidence 
and because of a ruling wdiich forbade them to preach, "they set 
up a kind of independence, and went on not only to preach, but 
to baptize. It all, however, ended in confusion." '^ At Ports- 
mouth, \'a., after the resignation of their pastor, Thomas Arm- 
istead, in 1792, Jacob Bishop, -"a black man of considerable 
talents'" was employed to preach for them. This arrangement, 
the historian notes, could not be satisfactory in \"irginia.'^- Da- 
venport's had only a few white members, but because of its 
situation near Petersburg a number of Negroes of that town had 
taken membership in this church. These built a meeting-house 



70. A Hi.story of the Rist- and Progress of the Baptists in \'ir- 
ginia, R. B. vScniplc, p. 222. 

71. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in \'ir- 
ginia, R. B. Semple, p. 112. 

72. Thid, 1). :{.55. 



KKLlGIOfS L)KVlvU)l'.MKM' Ol- Till'. M'.GKO 53 

and conducted llicir worsliip rcj;nlai"ly tlirough ])rcacliers of 
color.'-' 

Tlie most interesting case of all, lio\vc\cr, is the one of tlic 
\\'illiamsl)ur<;- lUijitist Church.''"* This church had a niemhership 
almost entirely, if not altogether, of Negroes. Moses, a Negro, 
first preached among them and was freciuently taken u]) and 
whipped as a reward for his zeal in holding meetings. A man 
called Gowan, or as he termed himself, Gowan Pamphlet, later 
preached for them and also baptized. Excommunication was the 
penalty prescribed by the Association for any person of color 
who preached, but the blacks showed a rebellious spirit in con- 
tinuing to hold meetings as formerly. Gowan and some others 
were "excluded," InU were nothing daunted, so they organized a 
church outside of the Baptist fellowship and continued preach- 
ing, baptizing, etc., as formerly. A church book was kept, and 
in 1791 while the Dover Association was meeting in ^lathews 
County this church with a membership of about five hundred 
petitioned for admittance into the Association. The Association 
sent a committee to them to "set things in order" and after the 
committee's favorable report, the church was received. ^'^ The 
foregoing facts constitute one of the most romantic pages of 
Neo-ro religious history. No one knows exactly wdien Moses 
preached in \\'illiamsburg or when Gowan commenced preach- 
ing. It certainly would not have Ijeen considered important 
enough to record in Virginia history when so many thrilling gov- 
ernmental events were taking place. It is merely known to us 
that sometime after a handful of Negroes and Gowan had been 
excommunicated, they organized a church and gathered about 
this nucleus 500 converts and received admission into the Dover 
Association in 17^)1. Churches were frequently organized among 



73. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in \'ir- 
ginia, R. B. Semple, p. 361. 

74. Ibid., pps. 114, 115. 

75. A Revision of the 1810 edition of Semple says in a foot-note: 
"This church had a brief existence. The present church of the same 
name was organized in 1828 and occupies the ground of the original 
one. Scervant Jones was for years their pastor, whilst they wor- 
shipped in the famous Old Poivdcr Magazine on tlic pulilic square 
in Williamsburg." 



54 RELIGIOUS- DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

Bajjtists before they were recognized by the Association, but the 
upbuilding of this ]\irticular church must have been the work 
of several years. In the face of the opposition which a Negro 
church was liable to arouse, it could not be possible that mush- 
room growth should characterize the work.'*^ The Negro Year 
Book for 1912 gives the date for the founding of this church as 
1785 ; '"^ John W. Cromwell, Corresponding Secretary of the 
American Negro Academy, has placed it at 1776.' ^ We have 
found no records to verify either date but we believe the church 
to be the first Negro church in Mrginia, if not the first in the 
whole United States. 

In 1794, a Presbyterian, the Rev. Cary Allen was visiting the 
home of Colonel Skillern, and insisted on having devotions in- 
stead of continuing the conversation about the James River. 
The Colonel called together his family and the Negroes until 
his liouse was overflowing and some stood in the yard. After 
preaching to the whites for a time, he turned to the Negroes 
and said: "You Negroes, I have a word for you. Do you think 
that such poor, black, dirty-looking creatures as you can ever 
get to Heaven ? I do not speak this because I despise vou, and 
have no tender feelings for you ; by no means. I pity you from 
my heart. You are poor slaves and have a hard time of it here ; 
you work hard and have few of the comforts of life that you 
can enjoy; but I can tell }'0U that the blessed Savior shed his 
blood as much for you as for your masters, or any of the white 

people Break off from all }our wicked w-ays, your 

lying, stealing, swearing, drunkenness, and vile lewdness ; give 
yourselves to prayer and repentance and fly to Jesus, and give 
up your heart to him in true earnest, and flee from the wrath to 
come." '^■- The white people seemed more aft'ected by the ad- 
dress to the Negroes than they were by the one addressed to 
themselves. The Negroes were almost dissolved in tears. This 



76. John Asplund — "The Annual Register of the Baptist Denom- 
ination in North America to November 1, 1790," does not mention 
the Williamsburg Church, l)Ut this is not strange since the church 
was not recognized by the Dover Association until 1791. 

77. Negro Year Book, 1912, p. 79. 

78. The Negro Church, p. :',(). 

79. Foote's Sketches, pp. 2:52, 233. 



KiiLiGious di;\i;u>i'ml:nt uf TJiiv m;gru 55 

type of sermon was \ery frequently preached to ilie slaves.^'* It 
offers little present hope, but deals very freely with the future. 
Of the many distinguished travellers who came from the Con- 
tinent into America in the years following the Revolutionary 
War, Marquis de Chastellux and Duke de la Rochefoucault Lian- 
court were two of the most intelligent visitors from France. 
Rochefoucault, who was here in 1795, '96, '97, declared that Vir- 
ginians had made greater progress in reforming the barl)arit\' 
of the old laws concerning slavery than any other state in the 
Union and further, that "few nations are less addicted to re- 
ligious practice than the Mrginians." "^^ The humanitarian spirit 
must have been abroad in the land, and the slaves must have 
been benefited by this goodness just as Rochefoucault said, but 
we believe that the distinguished Frenchman Avas wrong concern- 
ing his estimate of religious practice in Virginia, unless he was 
referring exclusively to the highest class of educated citizens. 
Bishop Meade as late as 1811 did not expect to see an educated 
voung man wdio was not an atheist. And the questions, "First, 
whether there be a God? Secondly, whether the Christian re- 
ligion had been injurious or beneficial to mankind?" were de- 
bated in the literary societies at William and Mary College, a 
little before the Bishop's ordination. «2 Parson Weems of Pohick 
church sold Payne's "Age of Reason," and then the Bible as an 
antidote. The French skepticism and the ideas of the French 
Revolution were widely diffused and eagerly adopted by many 
of the elite, but the masses, the poor people, the common people, 
the slaves and also a few distinguished people were hanging on 
the words of some soul-stirred Alethodist or Baptist exhorter 
without being in the least disturbed by the intellectual vagaries 
of those who believed in no religious practice. 

John Davis, an English traveller and writer, taught school in 
Mrginia for a term and records in his book the life-story of a 
Negro slave named Dick. The old Negro tells of the evil life 
of Squire Sutherland's eldest son and then says that the second 



80. See extract from Bishop Meade's Sermon quoted in A Jour- 
ney in the Seaboard Slave States. F. W. Olmstead. 

81. Travels, etc.. Rochefoucault, Vol. IIT, pp. 84, 90. 

82. Old Churches, Meade, p. 29. 



56 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

son encouraged all the Negroes to go to meeting; encouraged 
matrimony by settling each couple in a log-house on a good plot 
of ground and gave every one that could say the alphabet a Tes- 
tament with cuts. Dick felt the refining influence of this master 
and very picturesquely the old Negro describes his own quest 
for a wife: "I had before quenched my thirst at anv dirty pud- 
dle ; but a stream that I was to drink at constant, I thought 
should be pure, — and I made my court to a wholesome girl, who 
had never bored her ears, and went constantly to meeting." ^- 
Davis found that about half of the congregation at Pohick church 
was white and the other half black. '^•^ "Among many of the 
Negroes were to be discovered the most satisfying evidences 
of sincere piety ; an artless simplicity, passionate aspiration 
after Christ; and an earnest endeavor to know and do the will 
of God." ^'^ If this be considered fulsome praise, hear old Par- 
son W'eems, the biographer of George Washington. "Sir," said 
W'eems, "no people in this country prize the Sabbath more se- 
riously than the trampled-upon negroes. They are swift to hear; 
they seem to hear as for their lives. They are wakeful, serious, 
reverent, and attentive in God's house ; and gladly embrace op- 
portunities of hearing his word. Oh ! it is sweet preaching, when 
people are desirous of hearing! Sweet feeding the flock of 
Christ when they have so good an appetite." '^'' 

Only one who will not see can fail to note the marked im- 
provement in the religious condition of the Negro at the end of 
this century over what it was at the beginning of the century. 
The manifold labors of white preachers, and laymen, the 
awakening interest among Negroes in favor of a better life, 



83. Travels, John Davis, pp. 415, 416. 

84. See also Bayard, Voyage dans 1' interieur des Etats-Unis a Bath, 
Winchester, dans la Vallee de Shenandoah, etc, etc. pendant 1' ete de 
1791. 2e ed. Paris 1708, p. 168. "Le lendemain, j' allai au temple 
avec tous les vovageurs: c' etait un edifice en bois, autour duquel on 
voyait ranges des chevaux de prix enharnaches avec luxe. Les ga- 
Icrics etaient pleines de negresses et de noirs endimanches. Dans le 
I)as, se trouvaient leurs maitres et maitresses, dont 1' exterieur an- 
nongait que tous etaient penetres de la saintete du lieu, et de la sol- 
eninile de la ceremonie." 

85. Davis Travels, p. .33,5. 

86. iX-ivis Travels, p. ,3:J.'). 



KKl^IGIOUS DEVELOPMENT i)V THE NKGKo 57 

the encouragements from wilhout and witliin, at tlic end of tla- 
Eighteenth Century, augur well for the notable amelioration 
which was destined to take place in the Nineteenth. The ex- 
periment of teaching Negroes religiously had proved feasible 
and as a result of this the roadway was oi)en : it remained for 
the Negroes to walk therein, if they would reach the goal. 



58 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 



1800 TO 1865. 

The Nineteenth Century was the most momentous in the his- 
tory of the Negro race. The threads of the past were gathered 
up in this century and a cloth of new texture was the result. 
This new cloth was ready to be used,' but the problem was how 
to use it. It long baffled the brainiest men of that day to know 
what to make of it and eventually the North and South ex- 
asperated with each other grasped opposite ends of the dark 
fabric and a contest ensued. What happened in the development 
of the religious life of the Negro in Virginia up to the outbreak 
of that contest we shall now^ state. 

A political event occurred at the very dawn of the century 
which threatened to throw a damper over every enthusiasm 
aroused within the hearts of Virginians in behalf of Negroes. 
This sad event was the Gabriel Prosser near-insurrection in 1800. 
The intended insurrection did not result in the loss of any lives, 
save those guilty of playing leading parts in this widespread at- 
tempt to murder the citizens of Richmond. However, it made 
white people feel that they were near a sleeping volcano. It is 
just here that a sad fact must be faced. It is nowhere better 
illustrated than in the history of the Negro race, and that fact 
is this : unfortunately, the innocent suffer along with the guilty. 
After this attempted insurrection had been thwarted by an un- 
usually heavy rainfall and the consequent rising of streams, the 
laws passed by the Legislature prove the community of interest 
which color means. The slaves working in the fields of South- 
side \'irginia must have felt the doubts of their masters and 
mistresses, and were compelled to abide by new restrictive laws 
just as did the men who had murder in their hearts near Rich- 
mond. 

As early as 1710 the r)urgesses passed an act freeing Will, 
a Negro, who was the property of Robert Rufifin of Surry, be- 
cause the Negro discovered a conspiracy among other Negroes, 
and thus averted a tragedy.^ Lord Dunmore succeeded in lur- 



1. Hening, Vol. Ill, p. 536. 



RKUIGIUUS DliVKLurMKNT Ul' Till; NEGRO 59 

ing away many Xegroes at the outbreak of the Revohitionary 
War, but small-pox and bad treatment catised these to rue the 
day that they left home. There are astoundingly few instances 
in \'irginia history to show that animosity existed between the 
races; and strangest of all, when insurrections were organized, 
the Negroes who were leading figures bore testimony later, to no 
bad treatment on the part of their owners. The evidence sub- 
mitted in the trials of the conspirators of 1800 also shows these 
very remarkable things: (1) ]\Iuch of the recruiting for the 
instirrection was done on Sundays, and mention is made of visits 
to churches for the purpose; (2) the Bible was quoted freely to 
urge the dubious negroes to continue faithful in this fight for 
liberty; (3) the Quakers, ^Methodists and Frenchmen were to 
be spared because of their friendly attitude toward liberty.- We 
see that this attempted insurrection was not exclusively a polit- 
ical uprising against servitude, but was fanned by a religious 
zeal that transformed the worshipper into the fanatic. 

The Legislature of A'irginia was interested in the welfare of 
the Negroes but it was undoubtedly many, many times more in- 
terested in preserving the lives of the white people of the State. 
]\Iuch benefit might possibly accrue to Negroes from frequent 
meetings, but the whites were compelled to set aside the benefits 
which might accrue to the slaves and legislate in a manner that 
would tend to save their own heads. Unselfishness is a beau- 
tiful virtue, but in the presence of cutthroats a man is very prone 
to look out for his own neck rather than the interests of the 
cutthroats. Hence in January, 1804, a bill was passed which 
declared that the assemblages of slaves at religious meetings 
or other places at night, were positively prohibited and would 
be declared unlawful assemblies, subject to penalties prescribed.^ 
But the legislature of Mrginia was not heartless. It was at 
least not deaf to the voice of public opinion, because a bill was 
passed in January, 1805, removing doubts that had arisen in 
connection with the bill of 1804. The bill of 1805 recites in its 
preamble the facts that good citizens were doubtful concerning 



2. Richmond Recorder. Apr. 6, 1803. Testimony of Ben, alias Ben 
Woolfolk. 

3. Hening, Vol. Ill, p. lOS. 



60 REUGlOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

the last bill, and feared that it would affect the religious rights 
of their slaves. By the later l)ill it was made clear that the 
previous act could uot be so construed as to prevent masters of 
slaves from allowing Negroes to accompany them or their fam- 
ilies to religious meetings, with this one proviso : that the re- 
ligious meeting be conducted by a regular ordained white min- 
ister.-* Further than this, the whole spirit of the times was in 
favor of giving the Negroes a chance religiously. The master 
recognized the superior value of good Christian slaves and it 
was his privilege to have some free person teach them things 
religious. 

The province of teaching the little Negroes was generally that 
of the master's wife and the growing young ladies on a plan- 
tation.'' Few Negroes escaped some religious instruction from 
these good people. Usually on Sunday afternoons, but some- 
times in the morning, the slaves would be gathered in to the 
great house and lessons in the catechism had to be learned.'' 
The Apostoles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Command- 
ments were also taught. Hymns were sung and prayers rose to 
the Heavenly Father. Many good masters read sermons to their 
slaves and we have heard from the lips of a daughter of Mr. A. 
N. Douglas of Loudoun County, that he required his own chil- 
dren to sit by his side as he read Castleman,''' or some other 
writer of sermons, to the slaves. Other masters hired ministers 
to do this labor of love, while still others preached themselves.^ 
John Randolph of Roanoke would often employ ministers to 
preach to his slaves and after the minister had concluded, he 
would address them with a few words. According to the testi- 
mony of ^Ir. Henry Carrington of Charlotte County, in the year 
1816 Mr. Randolph "made a profession of religion, had family 
prayers, and preached to his servants on Sunday." '* Places at 



4. Hcnin.c:, Vol. Ill, p. 124. 

5. Adams, A Southside View of Slavery, p. 56. 

6. Wliite and Black Under the Old Repfimc. Victoria V. Clayton, 
p. 58. 

7. I'lain Sermons for Servants. Rev. T. T. Castleman. 

8. Virginia: Past and Present. Elizabeth Lee, pp. 36, 27. 

9. Powhatan Eonldin, Home Reminiscences of John Randolph of 
Roanoke, p. 85. 



kkuicu)l:s di:vi;U)1'.\ii;nt ov tiik nkgko 61 

family prayers were provided and maintained for the Xegroes 
in many families and were usually eagerly clainicd by the as])ir- 
ing, religious blacks. i" That these customs were tirmly esta))- 
lished in many families cannot be doubted. 

The manumission of slaves had become a very fre(|uent oc- 
currence a little after the Revolutionary War and continued at 
a rapid rate until nearly a decade after the beginning of the 
Nineteenth Century.^ ^ Events then occurred that checked this 
tendency. It is remarkable how excellent some of these manu- 
mitted Negroes were, and in what high esteem such free Negroes 
were held in early times by the white people. Such expression? 
as those hereinafter quoted are seen in not one only, but in many 
legislative petitions: "An excellent character for sobriety, hon- 
esty, and industry." "provided well for their children, and bring 
them up in a moral way." "supported a spotless character," ^^ 
"his removal from the state would be an injury to the vicinity in 
which he has resided, "i-' and many such testimonials could be 
quoted to prove that some of the Negroes at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century had profited by their training in America 
and were showing noble lives. It is just here that an important 
fact lies. Evolution does not raise all with an equal swiftness. 
The individual sport really marks the highest present attainment 
of any evolutionary process. \Mthout these sports rising above 
the masses, evolution would be almost inconceivable. INIass 
evolution is impossible except as individuals rise. It must be 
much the same with the evolution of races. The sport rises 
above the masses and a new standard is set; he seems to call 
them on; he has demonstrated the possibilities so far, and to 
attain to his height is no longer considered marvelous. The 
highest attainment of individuals is really what the Anglo-Saxon 
considers as his legitimate racial evolution. When we speak of 
"our" writers we choose Shakespeare, Poe, Browning, etc., and 
they stand for white supremacy. They are not average. The 



10. The African Preacher. W. S. White, pp. ?,1, 32. 
Southside View of .Slavery. X. Adams, p. 58. 

11. Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Secession. Beverly B. 
Munford, p. 42. 

12. Ms. Legislative petitions of Accomac County, A42 and AoO. 

13. See also, Ms. Petitions Henrico A9470. A9472. A9485. A9517. 



62 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

rest of us cannot approach their art. We too frequently deny 
this privilege to the Negroes of choosing representative men, 
and consider their representatives as chicken thieves or vagrants. 
It is unfair to do so. We choose our best and call that evolu- 
tion ; we choose their worst and brand that the Negro's evolu- 
tion. The exceptional individual is valuable in that he furnishes 
the incentive to the others. He is not average ; he is at the crest 
of the racial evolution. The average racial evolution will neces- 
sarily be infinitely slower than the evolution of picked individuals. 
As one of the mass of society rises, another falls and the average 
remains undisturbed. In reality, few processes can be slower 
than racial uplift. The endeavor must be, however, constantly 
to raise more individuals above the average that the average 
may be raised. Professor Straton called attention to these facts 
at the Birmingham Conference in 1900, when he said : "We 
must not confuse the rapid development of exceptional indi- 
viduals, with the evolution of the race. Picked individuals, 
strengthened often in mental vigor by infusions of white blood, 
may grow rapidly ; but the evolution of the race comes slowly — 
a part of each new element of strength being transmitted by the 
laws of heredity from father to son, and so on to succeeding 
generations ; and so, slowly and painfully, a race advances. It 
is not a matter of decades, but of centuries. The Negro race 
as a whole, however, may go forward higher yet in outward 
forms, but still deep down beneath these things may lie the tend- 
encies which give color to the fear that they are a decaying 
people." 1^ This statement of Professor Straton certainly checks 
unbridled enthusiasm and sets us for the task before us. He 
nowhere, however, denies the value of the individual in a racial 
evolution. He could not. His emphasis is on the slowness of 
raising the average. He seems to overlook environment while 
emphasizing heredity. In reality, if Negroes had to wait to in- 
herit one good quality after another from their parents whilst 
also inheriting bad traits, ages of time would scarcely suffice for 
such an evolution. That races progress slowly is trite ; that in- 
dividuals and masses cannot be considered identical is axio- 
matic; that the individual is nevertheless a part of the mass is 



14. Proceedings of Montgomery Conference, p. 149. 



RELIGIOUS DEVKLOl'MKXT OF TIIIC NEGRO 63 

also axiomatic; that a definition of the average differs with the 
difference in racial viewpoints has heen proved hy experiment. 
Even though the status quo of the race at any given time is to 
be judged from the average Negro/^ if he can be agreed upon, 
the prospects for the best development of the average in the 
future is to be seen in the best development of individuals at 
any one given time. Upon that highest development hypothesis 
our whole system of University education works out in practice, 
no matter how democratic it may be in theory. Each individual 
has a distinct part to j^lay in raising the racial average. The 
individual sports must be cultivated. The Negro is learning 
these facts. 

Near the end of the eighteenth century a mulatto named 
Christopher McPherson was freed by a Mr. Ross. From an 
early age Mr. Ross recognized the "fidelity and integrity" of 
the Negro and had emancipated him in fact, but had postponed 
the legal emancipation until the • 3rd of July, 1792. i*' This 
Negro's case is a very exceptional one ; indeed we believe it so 
exceptional as to demand its insertion here. The heights at- 
tained by this man and his social standing, before his brain was 
affected by too much religion, are absolutely dazzling to our 
modern eyes not accustomed to such sights. He was a store- 
keeper for years, and conducted the business with remarkable 
acumen. On one occasion at Columbia in Fluvanna County, he 
broke up an incipient slave uprising by charging into the midst 
of the Negroes and declaring that he would cut oft" the arm of 
the first one that struck a blow. John Quarles. the mayor of 
the town, was a witness to this event and remarked on the fierce- 
ness of mien which characterized M'Pherson as he stood with 
his old Revolutionary sword drawn, ready for execution. ^\v. 
AA'm. Waller Hening and many others refer to him as Mr. 
M'Pherson and give him as high testimonials as men are wont 
to receive. Mr. Hening wrote from Charlottesville in 18CX): 
"Christopher M'Pherson, the bearer hereof officiated for some 



15. E. C. Pell— "The Bright Side of Humanity:" "The average 
negro has never been portrayed except in silhouette." 

16. Other facts concerning this remarkable Negro may be found 
in Henrico MS. Petitions A. 9182. 



64 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

time as a clerk in my office and it is with much pleasure that I 
am enabled to pay that tribute of approbation which his conduct 
so justly merits. In his business he was uncommonly dextrous 
and accurate, — in his demeanor unexceptional. Having engaged 
a young gentleman to assist me, previous to my acquaintance 
with ]\Ir. ArPherson. it became necessary on his arrival for 
Mr. M'Pherson to remove. ^Nlr. AI'Fherson during his resi- 
dence with me conducted himself with modesty, diligence and 
good morals." Other men such as Geo. Wythe, Chancellor of 
Mrginia, Peyton Drew, W'm. Dabney, Robert Pollard, Edm. 
Randolph, John A\'ickham, Thos. Alarshall, Wm. Wirt, J. Alar- 
shall, ]\Iary Randolph and about a hundred others recommended 
him "as a person of Integrity, Industry, and general good con- 
duct,"" when he presented a petition to the Legislature in De- 
cember, 1810, asking for the privilege of riding in a carriage 
during his old age. It seems that the Richmond Council in 
June 1810 passed an ordinance which would make a carriage 
owner forfeit a $200 bond if he jiermitted a Negro or mulatto 
to use it unless in the capacity of a maid or servant to some 
lady or gentleman who was riding. "^'^ The petition presented 
by MTherson is now preserved in the Archives of the State 
Library and is marked "reasonable" and "reported," but there 
is no further record of action on it. It is only natural that the 
State should hesitate to interfere with municipal laws. We 
have seen that men in many callings acknowledged the worth of 
this man and we know that he rendered an especial service while 
working in one of the state offices by inventing a good system 
of indexing. All of his great reputation, however, was soon 
doomed to be in eclipse after the misfortune of going crazy on 
the subject of religion. ^^ 



17. An ordinance, to Amend the ordinance for regulating- Wagons. 
Drays and Carts, and for other purposes. Passed ISth June, 1810. 
In papers of Henrico MS. Petitions A 9182. 

18. The following remarkable document was sent by him to tlie 
Legislature: Christopher MacPherson To the Honorable — Tlie Com- 
mittee for Courts of Justice of the General Asseml^ly of the Old 
Dominion State of \'irginia — I beg leave to introduce myself to you, 
as being that very express personage, who is set forth in the Rev- 
elations of Saint John the Divine, in the 11th. and 16th. verses of 



Ki:i,lGU)US DlvXKl.Ol'.MKXT Ol- THK XKGKO 65 

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams in 1812 charac- 
terized AlacPherson thus: "lie is a man of color, hrought up 
as a hook-keeper by a merchant, his master, and afterward en- 
franchised. Me had understanding enough to post up his ledger 
from his journal, but not enough to bear up against hypochon- 
driac aft'ections, and the gloomy forebodings they inspire. He 
became crazy, foggy, his head always in the clouds, and rhap- 
sodizing what neilher himself nor any one else could under- 
stand." '•' "Sic trojisit (jloria iiiundi." 

•The Quakers at the beginning of this century kept their com- 
mittees busy by recommending for the Negroes "a more general 
care in those respects (useful learning) as well as to promote 
Their advancement in Religion and ^^lorality." -^ The educa- 



the 19th. Chapter, and the first verse of the 20th. Chapter.— To the 
truth of this assertion, I take my Almighty God to witness; and He 
will prove the same, if you require it of Him. 

"I have the happiness to announce to you and to the World, that 
the Glorious Millenium was planted on this Earth, on the 15th. day 
of February in the year of our Lord 1799 — Omnipotence, out of his 
great goodness and peculiar distinction towards you desires me to 
inform you, that now, it is His wish, that the first acts of His reign 
on Earth, shall emanate from you; and that you are to enact Laws, 
founded upon the pure and sacred principles of Truth and Justice — 
Reason & Religion, Peace & Harmony and Love and Unity — which 
no doubt, will be crowned by Faith and Power and Glory — . 

"John Adams late President of the United States & the Senate of 
the same, failed to pay the attention that was due to His most Gra- 
cious Message — as is contained in the enclosed address, — Our Al- 
mighty and Alost Gracious Father therefore, now, delegates that 
message to you and after mature deliberation. He wishes you to 
make a Solemn and Earnest prayer for His Almighty Will to be 
forthwith done: and He will to your perfect Satisfaction, that mo- 
ment, confirm this Embassy — Inclosed are documents respecting this 
business, agreeable to the list stated. — I am Gentlemen, 

"Your Friend & Servant 

"Pherson Son of Christ 

Alias 
"Fierce Son of Christ." 

19. Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. XIH, p. 144. Thos. Jef- 
ferson Memorial Ass'n edition. 

20. MS. Minutes Fairfax Monthly Meetings, Book B. 1776-1802, 
p. 72.5. 



66 RELIGIOUS de;velopment of the negro 

tional work of the Quakers was destined to be seriously impeded, 
however, by legislation later on in this century. At the Oc- 
tober term of the Circuit Court of Albemarle County in the 
year 1818 several gentlemen were summoned to answer the 
charge of unlawfully assembling slaves and teaching them at 
the Cove Meeting House. The pastor of the little flock was ac- 
cused of offering to instruct them and predicting their freedom. 
The case was continued for several terms and then dismissed. ^i 
It goes almost without question that any law which would tend 
to restrict the knowledge of the Bible among slaves would be 
far more honored in its breach than in its observance. And Vir- 
ginians of that day thought so too. The only reason for passing 
such laws was a desire to prevent meddlers from coming in and 
stirring up the Negroes to cut their masters' throats under guise 
of teaching them the religion of the gentle Jesus Christ. The 
Baptists of Dover Association met in the Nomini meeting-house, 
Westmoreland County, in 1802 to arrange for a uniformity 
among churches in holding church meetings.^- It seems that 
some churches had more slave members than white members. 
This state of afifairs resulted in the slaves having a majority of 
the male adult vote in some instances. To check the control of the 
Negroes a plan was sanctioned by which all were admitted to 
privileges in the church, but only the free male members were 
entitled to exercise authority. C. C. Jones estimated in 1809 
that there were 9,000 Negro Baptist communicants in Virginia. 
The Baptists had thus early taken a big lead among the Negroes 
and were never to be overtaken in point of numbers. The Meth- 
odists were becoming better adjusted to Southern conditions and 
their churches were gaining accessions very rapidly. The Epis- 
copalians at the beginning of the Century had lost their grip 
upon the emotional Negroes who flocked to the Methodists and 
Baptists. In later years, imder the leadership of Bishop Meade 
an attempt was made to renew the struggle for best service in 
helping the slaves religiously but the attempt was late. The 
sceptre had departed. Bishop Meade's good common sense is 
clearly shown in many instances, but in few more than in a dis- 



21. R. Woods — History of Aliiemarle, pp. Ill, 112. 

22. Semple, Virginia Baptists. 



REUGIOUS DKVKLOPMKNT t)F Till'; NIXRO 67 

cussion whicii lie had witli a prominent Episcopal minister who 
insisted that no one should preach to slaves even in their (|uar- 
ters until the service according to the ruhric was used. 'iMiis 
discussion took place soon after the ordination of Rev. Mr. 
]\Ieade, and after waiting for several years the Bishop found 
his own judgment ajiproved.--"^ The power of Bishop Meade 
to influence his communion for devotional living was seen in 
the solicitude which many had for their slaves, because of his 
insistence that the sen'ants would make pious members, if given 
proper attention.-'* The opportunities which have come to many 
a Xegro child from the fact of its birth into a Christian family 
are in many instances to be ascribed to the potent influence ex- 
erted by this Bishop and those who wrote sermons for slaves 
at his bidding, as T. T. Castleman, Churchill Gibson and others. 
The Presbyterians under the strong leadership of the men of 
Hanover had long since laid strong foundations for their work 
among the Negroes. Although their results have never been 
showy, like those presented by some of the other denoniinations, 
they have ever been consistent and patient in doing substantial 
religious work for the blacks. In 1806, Dr. John Holt Rice 
obtained a commission directly from the General Assembly "to 
spend two months in missionary labor among the blacks in Char- 
lotte County, Va., and parts adjacent." -'' The next year he was 
commissioned for three months and each succeeding year for 
the same period as long as he remained in Charlotte. He 
preached special sermons Sunday afternoons for the Negroes 
at all seasons of the year.^^ Dr. Rice was fortunate in that he 
had a nucleus of Christian Negroes trained under Rev. Samuel 
Davies while they were living in Hanover, around which he 
could gather others. Rev. S. J. Price found the Christian Ne- 
goes well organized for Christian living, with watchmen to take 
the lead and report any moral delinquents. These definite trusts 
the Negroes perfonned admirably.-'^ The influence of these 



23. Meade, Old Churches. Vol. I, p. 28. 

24. Ibid. Vol. I, p. 60. 

25. Foote's Sketches— 2nd. Series, p. 303. 

26. Ibid. p. 301. 

27. Foote, p. 303. 



68 RElvIGIOUS DEVElvOPM^NT OF THE NEGRO 

pious old Negroes was tremendous and was a deterrent to many 
an evil act on the part of sinners of a younger generation. 
These old men in the midst of their humility were proud to teach 
the younger Negroes the Catechism and other Biblical truths. 
Many of these old Negroes, who had learned to read during the 
eighteenth century taught the little Negroes to read. Their 
ability to quote Scripture is almost without parallel in this 
country, and is absolutely the despair of the generations now 
living in a free country one hundred years removed from the 
events to which w^e are referring. 

This work for Negroes was not hid in a corner. In a letter 
which Mrs. John Thompson Mason wrote to her son Temple 
in 1816, she says: "Give your poor slaves who work in the 
field. Saturday to sell what they make, that they may have it 
in their power to go to worship on Sunday. Attend to your dear 
children Set them an example by having family wor- 
ship for them and your servants etc." -^ Mr. Law- 
rence Lewis, Geo. Washington's nephew, and his slaves, were 
members of the same church at Berryville. After the whites 
had communed on a certain Sunday, one of his servants carrm 
forward, and as Mr. Lewis had not communed, he also came 
forward and knelt by the side of his servant, as Bishop Meade 
says, "feeling no doubt that one God made them and one Sav- 
ior redeemed them." ^^ It must be distinctly understood, 
however, that this incident was not the custom. Usually the 
Negroes communed after the whites, but there were excep- 
tions even to this rule.^*' As for seating arrangements, when 
the Negroes attended the white churches in considerable num- 
bers certain seats were set apart for their use. These seats 
were usually in the galleries, but sometimes on the main floor 
of the church. 

The course of events was undisturbed during the period be- 
tween 1810 and 1820 by any unusual happenings in the reli- 
gious history of the Negro. Baptisms and marriages con- 



28. Meade, Old Churches, Vol. II, p. 231. 

29. Meade, Old Churches, Vol. II, p. 232. 

30. A Defence of Virginia. R. L. Dabney, p. 219. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 69 

tinued.2^ The War of 1812 was foiiglit, but had little effect 
upon the lives of the slaves or free Negroes. If that people 
be happy whose annals are brief, then the Negroes of Vir- 
ginia must have been enjoying a pleasant period while devel- 
oping their religious faculties for greater efforts later on. 
Even though they had been forbidden to meet to learn to read 
and write, the law expressly provided that this act should not 
be construed to forbid masters taking their slaves to religious 
services. ^2 The act was certainly not aimed at the morality 
of the Negroes, but it was an expedient, made necessary, so 
the legislators of that day thought, by the danger of Negroes 
reading incendiary literature and rising in insurrection. Mas- 
ters were expressly privileged in Virginia to employ persons 
to instruct them religiously.-'^-'^ It is a source of great gratifica- 
tion to us now to know that our legislators did not let their 
fears take them quite as far as the people of North Carolina 
went who ordered patrols to "search every negro house for 
books or prints of any kind. Bibles and Hymn Books were par- 
ticularly mentioned." ^^ 

According to the date proposed by the Library of Congress 
it was in 1812 that an important book was issued, entitled: 
"Sermons Addressed to Masters and Servants, and Published 



31. L. W. Burton. History of Henrico Parish and St. John's Church. 
Edited and Compiled by J. Stanton Moore. 

"List of marriages from 1815 to 1842— Rev. Wm. H. Hart." 
"At Richmond, Va.. March 2, 1816— Jacob, slave to Miss Sherbrooke 
and Eva, slave to Mr. Thos. Bohannon." 

"At Richmond, Va., May 15, 1823— Ned Lightfoot and Sophy Buck, 
both free people of color; license bearing date as above." 
"Baptisms" 

"Baptized at Richmond, September 13, 1816, Joseph Wills, a black 
infant, the property of Mr. John Adams." 

"Baptised at Richmond, October 17, 1816. Ann Eliza and James Al- 
fred, children of Wm. and Elizabeth Ricardson." 

In 1824 the First Baptist Church of Richmond, \'a., could report a 
membership of 820. Of this number the larger portion were free 
Negroes and Slaves. See First Century of the First Baptist Church 
of Richmond, Va., p. 68. 

32. Revised Code of Virginia, 1819, pp. 424, 425. 

33. Supplement to code of 1833, p. 246. 

34. Weeds "Slavery as It Is," p. 51. 



f 



70 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

in the Year 1743 by the Rev. Thomas Bacon, Minister of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. Now republished 
with other Tracts and Dialogues on the same subject and rec- 
ommended to all Masters and Ministers to be used in their 
families by the Rev. William Meade Winchester John Heiskell 
Printer." This volume contained six sermons on two texts, 
Colossians 4:1 and Ephesians 6:8; Dr. Cotton Mather's reso- 
lutions concerning slaves, the Ten Commandments with ex- 
planatory passages of Scripture; and dialogues. The idea of 
the book is well expressed in its own words : "I shall there- 
fore confine myself to one, and that indeed a principal branch 
of this duty, viz: The indispensable obligation of every 
Master and Mistress lies under of bringing up their slaves in 
the knowledge and fear of Almighty God." 

In 1822, Rev. John Mines. Moravian Brother, pastor of a 
church at Leesburg, Va.. published at Richmond, "The 
Evangelical Catechism, or a plain and easy system of the 
principal doctrines and duties of the Christian religion. 
Adapted to the use of Sabbath schools and families, with a 
new method of instructing those who can not read." The 
"new method" of instruction was simply an arrangement for 
oral instruction. It is certain that the development of the 
memory under the new system was remarkable.^'^ It must be 
remembered that even when the laws frowned upon the increase 
of learning among the Negroes, the Virginia masters taught 
certain of their slaves in private. That consistent friend of the 
Negro, Dr. John Holt Rice, brought especially the need of re- 
ligious instruction for the blacks, to the attention of the citi- 
zens of Virginia through a sermon on the duties of the masters 
to educate and baptize their slaves, published in the Evangelical 
and Literary Magazine. \'ol. \'III. pp. 613, 614. This was in 
1829."*' It is certain that one of his prominent reasons for aid- 
ing so materially in the establishment of the Prince Edward 
Tlieological Seminary was his desire to raise up a ministr}^ ac- 
quainted with the problems of masters and servants. The 
seriousness which entered into an attempt to solve this Negro 



35. Adams, Southsidc \'ie\v of Slavery, p. 57. 

36. Harrison and Barnes — pp. 7'.'>. 74. 



RELIGIOUS DliVIiLOPMENT OF TIIIC NlCGRO 71 

religious problem in that clay is practically beyond the compre- 
hension of any white man of this day. We simply have to go 
back a century or so to learn how to do work for the religious 
development of the Negro. The leaders of this work in our 
day are rarely original ; they have only learned a lesson at the 
feet of their forefathers that they adapt to the new situations. 
A memorial of the Richmond and Manchester Colonization 
Society presented to the Legislature in 1826 reminds us that 
one of the great aims of the organization was to settle free 
people of color on the coast of Africa in such a situation as not 
only to promote their happiness but also to "enable them to 
spread Christianity and civilization among the people adjacent 
to their settlement, and gradually through that vast continent," 
etc.^' This twofold purpose assumed that the ones in Africa 
needed Christianization and civilizing, and further assumed that 
the free people of color of this country had both.^^ Only a 
blind man could fail to see that the Negro had already under- 
gone a marvelous change religiously, and as he was removed 
by time, farther and farther away from superstition, he was 
destined to undergo still greater changes for his betterment. 
Under stress of eking out an existence in Africa the few sent 
from this country failed to act as leaven in the lump. \\'hat 
might have been done if the Colonization Society had been 
successful in securing a large emigration to Africa no one can 
say. It is enough for our present purposes to know that its 
promoters in \'irginia expressed, and doubtless felt, confidence 
and a strong interest in the Christian Negro and realized his 
possibilities, in part, at least. 



37. MS. Petition Henrico A9359. 

38. A'irginians however were not blind to the defects of the free 
Negroes, as is seen in the Memorial of the Virginia Colonization 
Society presented some years later— in Feb. 1833— which says in part: 
"They are (with some happy exceptions) a thriftless and vicious race, 
degraded in the eyes of the public and even in their own; and ready 
accordingly for acts of violence and crime, etc." MS. Petition — Hen- 
rico A9456. As the years rolled on, \'irginians thought less and less 
of the free Negro. The ante-bellum white men to whom we have 
talked are unanimous in lauding the slave Negro and disapproving 
the Negroes who were free. " ' 



72 REUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

A few years before this, in 1823, a petition was presented to 
the Legislature by free Negroes of Richmond that shows a lack 
of church facilities for persons of color. Race consciousness 
in things rehgious tending towards church independence was 
very apparent in this document, y.et an excellent spirit per- 
vaded the whole. The unusual value of the petition as a reflec- 
tion of the religious history of the time is so manifest that we 
shall present it in full. 

"To the Honorable the Speaker and Members of the House of 
Delegates of the Commonwealth of Mrginia.^^ ^\^q petition of 
a number of persons of colour residing in the City of Richmond 
respectfully requests; that from the rapid increase of popula- 
tion in this city, the number of free persons of colour and slaves 
has become very considerable, and altho few of them can boast 
any knowledge of letters, yet, that they are always anxious of 
receiving such instruction from public and divine worship as 
may be given by sensible and prudent Teachers of religion. 

"It has been the misfortune of your petitioners to be excluded 
from the churches. Meeting Houses, and other places of public 
devotion which are used by white persons, in consequence of no 
appropriate place being assigned for them, except in a few 
Houses and they have been compelled to look to private 
Houses, where they are much crowded and where a portion of 
their Brethren are unable to hear or to partake of the worship 
which is going on. Your petitioners consisting of free persons 
and slaves, have been for some time associated with the Baptist 
church, a list of their members consisting of about 700 persons 
has been submitted for his inspection to the Head of the Police 
of this City, and no objection has been by him made to their 
moral character. 

"Your petitioners for these reasons humbly pray that your 
honorable body will pass a law authorizing them to cause to be 
erected within this city, a House of public worship which may 
be called the Baptist African Church. Your petitioners are 
aware that they cannot reasonably expect such a privilege to be 
conferred upon them, except under such restrictions and re- 
straints as are consistent with the laws now existing or which 



39. MS. Legislative Petition Henrico A 9335. 



RKLIGIOUS DEVKLOrMKNT OF TIlK NEGRO 73 

may hereafter be passed for llic proper rcslrainl of persons of 
colour and for the preservation of the i)eace and good order of 
society. To such restraints and restrictions they are prepared 
most cheerfully to submit and altho it would be pleasing to them 
to have a voice in the choice of their Teachers, yet would they 
be quite satisfied that any choice made by them should be ap- 
proved or rejected by the Mayor of this City. They ask not for 
the privilege of continuing in office any preacher who shall in 
any manner have rendered himself obnoxious to the Mayor nor 
can they reasonably expect to hold night meetings or assemblages 
for Baptizing Init with the consent of that officer, and your 
Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray." 

This petition is signed by 92 free persons of color of the 
Baptist denomination in Richmond. The Mayor approved of 
the petitioners and the petition in these words: "I hereby cer- 
tify that I have examined the list of Signatures of free persons 
of color hereunto attached and believe them to be respectable. 

"I am of the opinion that the prayer of this petition, if granted, 
may be productive of benefit to themselves as well as to the white 
population of Richmond and most sincerely wish them Success. 

"John Adams, Mayor of the City of Richmond." 

The Master of Police endorsed the proposition thus: "So far 
as I know, or have heard of the Characters and conduct of 
the free persons of colour who have signed this petition I be- 
lieve them to be orderly, well disposed persons: many ot them 
I know to be men of good characters. If what they ask for, in 
their petition be granted them by the Legislature under the re- 
straints suggested therein, I believe a benefit would result as 
well to the white, as the coloured population, of the City of 
Richmond. 

"Joseph F. Price 

"blaster of Police." 

Several gentlemen other than the above-mentioned ones con- 
sidered the petition reasonable and endorsed the characters of 
the petitioners. The Petition was presented on the 3d of De- 
cember, 1823, and a bill was reported on the 10th. but it seems 
that it did not pass. All in all. at this time we can l)e sure that 
a minority of Negroes attended worship in tlie white Christian 



74 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

churches, yet a regrettable neglect of their religious facilities, as 
well as instruction, was all too frequent. The whites still had 
much to do. 

This growing interest in the care of Negroes received a rude 
shock which was truly staggering, when a Negro preacher named 
Nat Turner led the notorious Southampton slave insurrection 
in the summer of 1831.-i« About sixty-one lives were snuffed 
out by Turner and his followers amid scenes of revolting cruelty 
in this Sunday night and Monday morning raid.-*i Nat Turner 
seems to have been fitted by nature for the miserable role he 
played in life. His birth took place five days before the execu- 
tion of Gabriel Prosser and five months after the birth of John 
Brown. His father was a runaway slave and was never recov- 
ered. Nat's early life exhibited marked signs of precocity and he 
was led to believe while still a child that he was a prophet. In 
attendance at church he was very regular and eventually became 
a preacher. His emphasis on the mystic element gave him a 
strong grip on the slaves, and he was shrewd enough to live 
apart from most of the Negroes — often going in the woods to 
remain. He saw signs on leaves, shrubs and in the heavens, and 
voices spoke to him even at the plow, as he thought, revealing 
the secrets of the divine will. Such a character was a fit indi- 
vidual to lead his band of deluded, ignorant, black men in such 
a career of nefarious butchery. A curious appearance of the 
sun on August 13th 1831,-*2 was the sign that settled his resolve 
to make a strike for freedom. Without warning, the career of 
murder began during a warm summer night when houses were 
generally unlocked and the masters sleeping. Neither men, 
women, nor children were spared in the murderous career. A 
determined stand, however, by a few whites at Parker's field 
was the first real obstruction that they met. This so demoral- 
ized the Negroes, many of whom were drunk from swilling apple 
brandy, that they scattered, and their reign of terror was brought 



40. Slave Insurrections in Virginia (1830-1865), W. S. Drewry, 
p. 25. 

41. Slave Insurrections in A'irsinia (1830-186,5), W. S. Drewry, p. 
196. 

42. Willias S. Forrest — Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Nor- 
folk and Vicinity, p. 192. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOI'MENT OF THE NEGRO 75 

to an end by the capture and conviction of many of the Negroes 
involved.'*^ The whites were naturally goaded to fuiy by this 
uprising, yet the remarkable feature of it all was the quickness 
with which quietude and justice resumed the places so violently 
usurped by insurrection and anarchy. 

Governor Floyd of \lrginia and many others had ■ long felt 
that the religion of the Negroes was little better than supersti- 
tion. This tragedy confirmed their opinion. The open appear- 
ance of the abolition movement had taken place rti the early 
part of 1831, at Boston — only a few months before "Old Nat's 
War" — under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison.'*^ 
Quakers had been ordered to free their slaves or be excommuni- 
cated long before this, and the ideas of freedom were in the air 
to such an extent that many Virginia masters had manumitted 
many slaves before this date. Now all was doubt. Many things 
made it necessary that a feeling of greater security should pre- 
vail in \'irginia. Who could know when another plot was being 
prepared? Wdiile this feeling of uncertainty was still preva- 
lent, Gov. John Floyd sent this trenchant message to the Senate 
and House of Delegates of Mrginia on Dec. 6th, 1831 : "The 
most active among ourselves in stirring up the spirit of revolt 
have been the Negro preachers. They had acquired great as- 
cendancy over the minds of their fellows, and infused all their 
opinions which had .prepared them for the development of the 
final design; there is also some reason to believe those ])reach- 
ers have perfect understanding in relation to these plans through- 
out the eastern counties; and have been the channels through 
which the inflammatory papers and pamphlets, brought here by 
the agents and emissaries from other States, have been circu- 
lated amongst our slaves. The facilities thus afforded for plot- 
ting treason and conspiracy to rebel and make insurrection, have 
been great. Through the indulgence of the magistracv and the 
laws large collections of slaves have been permitted to take 
place, at any time through the week for the ostensible ])urpose 
of indulging in religious worship but in many instances the real 



43. For full details of all this insurrection See Drewry, "Slave In- 
surrections in \'irginia." 

44. Burgess, John W. The Middle Period. 1817-1858. p. 246. 



76 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

purpose with the preacher was of a different character. The 
sentiments and sometimes the words of these inflammatory 
pamphlets, which the meek and charitable of other States have 
seen cause to distribute as firebrands in the bosom of our so- 
ciety, have been read The public good requires the 

negro preachers to be silenced, who full of ignorance, are in- 
capable of inculcating anything but notions of the wildest super- 
stition, thus preparing fit instruments in the hands of the crafty 
agitators to destroy the public tranquility." ''•^ 

With this executive message before it the General Assembly 
enacted the bill of March 15th, 1832. By this act no Negro, 
ordained, licensed or otherwise, was permitted to hold religious 
or other assemblies at any time. The punishment prescribed 
for the offender was stripes not exceeding thirty-nine. All Ne- 
groes were forbidden to attend any such preachings, etc., when 
such were conducted by a Negro. Without written permission 
from his owner or overseer, a Negro attending night services 
even when conducted by a white ordained minister was subject 
to the same punishment — lashes not exceeding thirty-nine. The 
arrest in any of the above cases would take place without written 
precept. All of the regulations above were subject to the follow- 
ing provisos : ( 1 ) That nothing in the above should prevent 
Negroes from being carried or going to places of religious wor- 
ship with their masters or employers or with persons on whose 
property they live, when such service is conducted by a white 
ordained minister in the night time; (2) that the above should 
not prohibit a white licensed or ordained minister, or a layman 
licensed by his denomination for the purpose, from preaching 
or giving religious instructions to the Negroes in the day time ; 
nor deprive the master of the right to employ suitable persons 
to instruct his slaves ; nor prevent the assembly of the slaves of 
any one owner for religious devotion at any time. There can be 
no doubt that the act was not framed to lessen the growth of 
the Negro religiously, but was a removal of the very opportu- 
nity of insurrectionary evil and was deemed a step toward a 
deeper religious life for that race. The honor of the State of 
Virginia has often suft'ered in that many a biased writer has. 



45. House Journal 1831-2, p. 10. 



REUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT Ol- THE NEGRO 77 

quoted the first part of this act and has enlarged upon the crime 
of silencing the Negro preachers and forbidding Negro assem- 
blies, yet has been so unfair as to fail to show that the religious 
welfare of the Negro was provided for and not neglected. 

It is true that in the heat of debate many men made rash state- 
ments : many statements were misconstrued ; many conclusions 
were jumped at; many things were looked at from only one 
viewpoint. During the great slavery debate in the House of 
Delegates when Virginia came so near approving a policy of 
gradual emancipation, Mr. Berry, of Jefferson County, speaking 
on Friday, Jan. 20, 1832, said: "We have as far as possible 
closed every avenue by which light might enter the slaves' minds. 
If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work 
would be completed ; they would then be on a level with the 
beasts of the field and we should be safe ! I am not certain 
that we should not do it, if we could find out the process, and 
that on the plea of necessity." ^^ In contradistinction to this 
radical utterance the other debaters on both sides usually spoke 
with great kindness of the masters trying to aid their Negroes, 
yet recognizing the knotty problem that the Negroes were and 
would be. Such oratorical flights as Mr. Berry indulged in, 
while not in strict accord with facts, are rolled as sweet mor- 
sels under the tongues, and are quoted with as much confidence 
as if they had been Holy Writ by those who have seen only one 
side of the great slavery system of Virginia. It is true that the 
methods of this early day may have produced a 'Nat Turner, 
too religious, or may have produced sonie, not religious at all, 
yet a definite ei¥ort was made by a large percentage of the good 
people of Virginia to provide for the religions training of the 
Negro; and their success can be judged by the product, for ver- 
ily there is no controverting the fact, "by their fruits ye shall 
know them." 

That the Negro achieved as much as he did religiously, 
however, is much to his own credit, since there were cer- 
tainly many obstacles. A petition was presented to the Legis- 
lature in 1834, signed by free persons of color, and endorsed 
by practically all the white ministers of Richmond, as well as by 



46. Virginia Slavery Debate, B. W. Leigh. 



78 RELIGIOUS DEVElvOPMENT OF THK NEGRO 

several prominent law citizens. In this document the petitioners 
recite that because of the operation of the Act of March 15th, 
1832, many colored human beings are interred like brutes, their 
relatives and friends being unable to procure white ministers to 
perform the usual ceremony in the burial of the dead. "Your 
memorialists therefore pray the passage of a law authorizing 
free persons of colour, as well as slaves, to perform the cere- 
mony usual on such occasions by white ministers ; provided, they 
obtain a License for that purpose from the Pastor of the church 
to which they respectively belong for a limited period." ■*" The 
wanton neglect that made it necessary to present this petition 
appears unjustifiable. It seems, however, that although this 
petition was not granted, yet the defects were probably remedied, 
as no more such petitions were presented. In spite of definite 
policies which tended to Christianize the Negroes and in spite of 
many efiforts in their behalf, the religious growth of the Negroes 
appeared to be in eclipse from 1831 until nearly 1845. Of 
course we do not intimate that all its progress was stopped, but 
rather that the reaction from "old Nat's War" temporarily over- 
shadowed the interest in work for their religious development. 
When the eclipse period was over, the brightness seemed much 
greater than ever before. And it really was, too. 

The famous First African Church was organized about 1841 ^^ 
and the religious life of Negroes who attended there soon re- 
ceived the best attention. At other places the Negroes were 
members of the white churches. Scott and Ailcy, his wife, eman- 
cipated Negroes, and the one hundred and thirty or more sign- 
ers of their petition of 1836 requesting that the two Negroes 
be allowed to remain in the State, laid great emphasis on the fact 
of their membership in the Baptist Church and an "attachment 
to the members of the church to which they belong and their 



47. MS. Petition Henrico A9483. 

Jolin Marshall, Chief Justice of the U. S., in endorsing this pe- 
tition said: "I am not apprised of any mischief which would prob- 
ably result from following the prayer of this petition. Should this 
be correct I think humanity would dictate that the prayer of the pe- 
tition be granted with any safeguards which the wisdom of the leg- 
islature may suggest." 

48. The First Century of the First Baptist Church, p. 254. 



REUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 79 

neighbors generally.""*^ It is said that up to 1838 no special 
slave mission was reported in A'irginia, yet in the larger cities 
and even in some small towns there were llonrishing colored 
charges. . Norfolk was especially noticeable with its Negro mem- 
bership of 2)?)7 — more than the white membership of that city.'^^ 
In a letter which we have in our possession written by Mr. 
Thos. B. Rowland, one of Norfolk's oldest and best informed 
citizens, concerning the city's early history, he states that a ?\lrs. 
John Taylor, a wealthy Church of England lady, aided largely, 
if she did not bear all the expense, of the erection of an African 
Church in Bute Street, about the year 1832. A white minister 
was in charge. At Charlotte and Catharine Streets fnow Bank 
Street) some years later the Negro Baptists had a good church 
which they bought from the Presbyterians. Tradition has it that 
Old St. Paul's when abandoned about 1816 was partly used by 
Colored Baptists. Mr. Rowland further states that good fam- 
ilies in the olden days always had morning and evening prayers 
and to these the dependents were required to be present. 

There were many masters who proved that slavery could be- 
come a paternalistic form of government. Col. Thomas Dab- 
ney, who lived at "Elmington," Gloucester County, Va., left the 
delightful neighborhood in which he lived at a time when many 
others were moving farther South, because the expense was great 
in raising his own family and because he was dissatisfied wnth the 
amount of food that he could give to his Negroes. ^^ He made 
ample provision that not a single Negro family should be sepa- 
rated by his removal from the State. This tearing asunder of 
family ties was a very infrequent occurrence in Virginia — usually 
only at a time of bankruptcy, when the buyer could not be per- 
suaded to take the whole family, or in the division of an estate 
among heirs who would neither buy nor sell. In the words of 
an old Negro, Mammy Harriet, we can glimpse a bit of the de- 
votion felt by slaves for a good master: "My husband b'long 
to Cappen Edward Tabb, an' marster went dyar twice to try to 



49. MS. Petition Floyd Co. A 6081. 

50. vSuch. at least, is the surprising statement in Harrison and 
Barnes, p. 189. 

51. Memorials of a Southern Planter. Susan Dabney Smedes, p. 42. 



80 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

buy him. Rut Cappen Tabb say that no money couldn't buy 
him from him. Den Mrs. Tabb say dat she would buy me, an' 
two odder people dyar wanted. to buy me, too. But I say 'No 
indeed. Go "long. I shall follow my marster.' " ^2 And she 
went to Mississippi, too. The frequent presence of ministers at 
Col. Dabney's hospitable homes, whether at "Elmington" in 
Virginia, or at "Burleigh" in Mississippi, insured religious at- 
tention to his slaves, since Col. Dabney's care of his slaves was, 
as far as the records show, complete. As an old Negro said: 
"Marster 'lowed us to hab meetin', just as much meetin' as we 
chose. A heap o' people didn't let day people hab meetin' ; didn't 
like for dem to visit to see udder people. Marster warn' dat 
way." 5^ Such high testimonials are necessarily rare because 
very few persons preserved the sentiments of their slaves ; had 
they done so an invaluable record would have been preserved by 
a handsome majority telling of loving ministrations, kind rela- 
tionships, and religious care. 

By 1844 the Methodists of the United States had split into 
two churches. North and South, because of divergent views on 
the subject of slavery and in 1846 the Church, South, met in its 
First General Conference at Petersburg, \^a.^-* The recoil from 
this breaking asunder required some little time for adjustment, 
then the church South saw that its zeal must be redoubled in 
behalf of the Negroes if it would show to the world one of the 
best benefits bestowed by slavery on a non-Christian people. 
This church became very liberal in employing Southern whites 
to work among the Negroes. Such missionaries devoted them- 
selves exclusively to the religious welfare of their charges and 
did not become involved in controversies over the civil relations 
of the Negroes. In fact all the Southern churches were aroused. 
"As the abolition controversy waxed fiercer, the zeal for the 
negro missions waxed warmer; as abolition societies multiplied 
at the North, missions among the slaves multiplied at the South ; 
as plans and messages for the final extirpation of slavery were 
growing into grander proportions at the North, plans and meas- 



52. Ibid., p. 48. 

53. Memorials of a Southern Planter — Susan Dabney Smedes. p. 58. 

54. McTyeire — Hist, of Methodism, pp. 637, 8. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF Tlli: XKCKO 81 

iires for the salvation of the slaves were rapidly enlarging at the 
South." ^^ From the Proceedings of the Twenty-Second An- 
nual INIeeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, 
assembled in Lynchburg, Va.., on May 31st, 1845, we learn that 
after a resolution had been unanimously adopted to that effect, 
a committee of seven was appointed "to inquire into, and report 
the best means of securing more efficient religious instructicMi 
for our colored population. " ^^' This committee brought in its 
report and in a preamble stated that it believed that the moral 
and religious training of Negroes had been neglected, and sug- 
gested that part of the blame was to be laid on the activities of 
the Abolitionists. It realized the difficulties of the situation, con- 
gratulated those churches and pastors that had begun the work 
for Negroes and offered three resolutions : (1) That services 
should be held for Negroes on the afternoon of every Sunday 
when practicable; (2) that religious masters invite their serv- 
ants to family prayers; (3) that the church endeavor to bring 
Negroes into the temperance reformation. All of these were 
adopted and the committee was discharged. 

The First African Church of Richmond, \^a., with its distin- 
guished pastor leading in good works, had already begun its 
notable career, and it is worthy of remark that this edifice served 
not only as a church for the Negroes, but was frequently used 
for large political gatherings by the white citizens.^" The whites 
and blacks had been attending together the First Baptist Church, 
but the presence of such a great Negro membership and the 
lack of sittings for these eager listeners and the impossibility of 
giving them the attention necessary, seemed to militate against 
the best interests of the church."'' The whites were anxious also 
for a more beautiful Imilding than the old one, and as no ade- 



55. Methodist Quarterly Review 1866. Article entitled "Relations 
of the Colored People to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South." 

56. Minutes of the Conventions preserved in Baptist Historical So- 
ciet}^ at Richmond, \'a. 

57. See Richmond Whig., Apr. 25th, 1851 et passim. 

58. Basis of the following account is a paper entitled "Origin and 
History of the First African Church," by Robert Ryland, Published 
in "First Century of the First Baptist Church of Richmond. Va." 
Pp. 245-272. 



82 REIUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

quate plan was presented for the proper disposition of both 
races, it was considered advisable that the blacks should be al- 
lowed to buy the old property for a little more than half of its 
appraised value, and then have title to it as their own church. 
Legal doubts were soon settled by finding that a Negro church 
was not in opposition to State laws provided it had a white min- 
ister. The experiment was considered a doubtful one, however. 
To allay any possible hostile public sentiment the First Church 
appointed a committee of eight white men to elect the pastor and' 
in tuni, attend public worship with him. Dr. J. B. Jeter, pastor 
of the First Baptist Church, drew up the constitution for the 
African Church, and this provided for the selection of thirty 
deacons and a white pastor by the committee of eighteen sub- 
ject to the approval of the congregation. Vacancies in the 
Board of deacons were to be filled by popular vote and the pastor 
and this Board were to be the ruling powers in the church. No 
less a personage than the President of Richmond College, Dr. 
Robert Ryland, in consideration of many noble reflections, con- 
sented to be their pastor. He undertook his duties in October, 
1841, and was their pastor continuously until after the War. 
His policy was to treat them as he treated the whites "with the 
greatest possible respect." His discipline was thorough and his 
habit of instructing them in doctrines gave them something sub- 
stantial. One of the most valuable acts that he performed for 
them was the writing of a Catechism of fifty-two lessons which 
was so arranged that questions could be answered "yes" or "no," 
with corroborative Scriptures. This partly explains why many 
of the missionaries who invaded this State after the war ex- 
pressed such profound surprise that some of the Negroes knew 
so much of the Bible. Young theologues from the College would 
sometimes descend on the congregation and preach in response 
to Dr. Ryland's request. The Negro was an excellent judge of 
good preaching, if he had been raised on the right kind. One 
young man from the College after an animated effort heard 
Deacon Simms, a black brother, importune the Lord for large 
grace "on our stripling young brother that is trying to learn how 
to preach." The Negroes were mighty in prayer."''-^ Good order 



59. Adams, Southside View of Slavery, p. 55. 



KELIGIOLS l)UVi;U)l'MlCNT Ul" TUlC NKGKO 83 

was at all times rigorously observed; finances in this church were 
always in good condition. Between 1841 and 1<S35 the church 
grew from 1,000 to 3,000, so a colony, the Ebenezer Baptist 
Church, was set up. In spite of an insistence on a man's know- 
ing the principles of Christianity and after making the applicant 
wait through periods of probation, there were 3,832 additions 
by baptism to the African Church between October 1st, 1841, 
and July 1st. 1865. After this later date Dr. Ryland's services 
were no longer required by the freedmen. 

This rather full description of this remarkable church has 
been presented because it is based upon one of the very few 
reliable accounts written on the subject of Negro church his- 
tories. It was representative of similar work, being undertaken 
elsewhere with great success, when the estrangement preceding 
Reconstruction drove the races apart. It must be evident from 
the foregoing that the Negro is capable of attaining a good re- 
ligious standing, if he has the proper leadership and is put un- 
der proper restraints. In the absence of either of these de- 
terminants his religious life suffers. 

Among the Presbyterians a noble work had already been in 
progress for years throughout the state, but an extraordinarily 
famous name added to those doing such work at one place made 
this special field of labor doubly famous. A Sunday-School for 
Negro slaves was established in Lexington, Va., by Dr. W. H. 
Ruffner and Rev. Tucker Lacy in 1845 with "upwards of 100 
pupils and plenty of white teachers."*''^ After the removal of 
these two gentlemen from Lexington, the school languished, until 
in 1856 ]\Iajor T. J. Jackson, later Gen. "Stonewall"' Jackson, 
reorganized it. This great man devoted himself to this work 
with his customary zeal, consequently success was great. He 
gave reports monthly in person to every master showing the 
progress or defects of the slaves, and he was punctual in attend- 
ance himself and always thoroughly prepared to teach the lesson. 
He had no talent for singing, yet he managed to start a hymn 
for his pupils. He interested others in the work.^'^ When his 



60. See Sketch of Wm. Henry Ruffner by Anne H. R. Barclay in 
West X'irginia Historical Magazine, \'ol. 2, No. 4. 

61. Autoljiosraphy of W. S. White, p. 143. 



84 REUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

second wife, Mrs. Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, expressed a 
desire to teach in the white school Jackson urged her to lend a 
strong hand in uplifting the Negro instead, and later she was 
happy that she did as he wished. ^2 Even under the terrific strain 
incident to commanding duties in the War of Secession, he never 
forgot his Bible school at home,^^ and even took pains immedi- 
ately after the battle of First Manassas to send to Rev. Mr. White 
a letter containing his contribution for the Negro Sunday-School. 
His letter is memorable: "My dear pastor, in my tent last night, 
after a fatiguing day's service, I remembered that I had failed 
to send you my contribution for our colored Sunday-School. 
Enclosed you will find my check for that object, which please 
acknowledge at your earliest convenience, and oblige yours 
faithfully. 

"T. J. Jackson." «4 
It is also worthy of remark that this school was successful in a 
town where the Negroes were flocking to the Baptists and Meth- 
odists and where a young minister admirably fitted for the work 
and especially employed by the Presbyterian church to carry on 
work for Negroes found it impossible to secure visible signs of 
success. After the war this Sunday-School work was carried on 
by Col. J. T. L. Preston of Virginia Military Institute, Prof. J. J. 
Wliite of W^ashington and Lee University and many of the best 
people of Lexington.*^^ Dr. R. F. Campbe/U, now pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church, Asheville, N. C, was superintendent 
in a Sunday-School for Negroes, organized by a daughter of Dr. 
Wm. Henry Ruffner, in a settlement near Lexington. That the 
Negroes were not ungrateful for the consideration shown them 
by "Stonewall" Jackson is eloquently proclaimed by a beautiful 



62. Life of General Thomas J. Jackson, by Mrs. Mary Anna Jack- 
son (his wife), pp. 77, 78. 

63. Sunday-School Times, Dec. 3, 1887. Article by Mrs. Margaret 
Preston. 

64. Life of General Thomas J. Jackson by Mrs. Mary Anna Jack- 
son, pp. 181, 182. 

65. Sec Stonewall Jackson — A Military Biog-raphy, Reminiscences 
by J. Wm. Jones, D. D. pp. 500, 501, also William S. White, D. D. 
and His Times. An Autobiography, Edited by his Son, H. M. White, 
p. 15S. 



RKLIGIOUS DKVKI.OI'MKXT OF THK NKGRO 85 

memorial window placed in recent years in the I''ifth Avenue 
Presbyterian Church (Colored), Roanoke, Va. The design is 
based on tlic iminortal dyini;- words of the i^allant s^eneral and 
Christian orentlenian : "I.cl us cross over the river ruid rest in 
the shade of the trees/' The cost of this window was met by 
Rev. L. L. Downing-, the Xegro pastor, and his session. There 
can be no doubt that not one of the least claims of this remark- 
able Virginian to immortality was the consecrated devotedness 
which he exhibited in caring for the religious development of 
the Negro race. Nor was he alone in this work. Besides several 
already mentioned there w'ere other distinguished Virginians wdio 
strove equally hard for the Negro's ujilift: Prof. John 15. Minor, 
the renowned law professor at the University of \'irginia. Dr. 
A\ m. H. McGufifey of the Chair of Moral Philosophy, Dr. Fran- 
cis Smith, now emeritus professor of Physics at the University 
of Mrginia, ^liss Jennie Nelson, of Hanover County, who taught 
the little Negroes in the sand when paper w'as not available, 
Rev. W S. A\'hite, formerly of Lexington, Va., and many, many, 
others, devoted much time and energy to this form of Christian 
activity. If any work ever gave an adequate return in pleasure 
to the persons \xhd invested their time in it, this form would 
rank easily among the first, if we are to believe the unimpeach- 
able testimonies of these and other valiant spirits who labored 
for the moral and religious uplift of the Negro. The attitude 
of the South, and especially of South Carolina and Virginia, can 
be seen from their reports at the great conference which met in 
Charleston, S. C, May 13-15. 1845, to plan for the religious in- 
struction of Negroes. The President of this body was the ven- 
erable Daniel Elliott Huger, the successor of Mr. Calhoun in the 
U. S. Senate. Reports from the Episcopalian, Methodist, Bap- 
tist and Presbyterian churches showed great progress in evan- 
gelizing Negroes in X'irginia. The Convention's program is well 
shown in a section of a committee report which states : "Indeed 
w'e look upon the religious instruction of the Negroes as thk 
GREAT DUTY, and in the trtiest and best sense, the Fixed, the 
SETTLED POLICY oE THE SOUTH. ""^^ There can be no doubt after 



66. Princeton Review, Oct., 1845. 



86 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

an examination of subsequent events that this poHcy was vigor- 
ously prosecuted. 

We have mentioned the excellent quality of many of the free 
Negroes in the early part of the century and in the two previous 
centuries. This excellent standard failed to be maintained near 
the midway mark of the Nineteenth Centurv or our people 
looked on them with harsher eyes. Perhaps both suggestions are 
reasons for the unpopularity of free Negroes. Governor Wm. 
Smith in an executive message dated Dec. 7, 1846,''''' calls at- 
tention to the facts that although the free Negroes and mulat- 
toes constituted only about one-sixteenth of the population of 
Virginia (excluding foreigners), yet this small percentage con- 
tributed largely over two-fifths of the penitentiary convicts ; al- 
though the free Negroes constitute only about one-tenth of the 
Negro race in Virginia, yet they perpetrated about six-sevenths 
of the crimes committed by Negroes. These statistics he thinks 
demonstrate the "moral degradation of the free Negro, the hope- 
lessness of his reform, mischievous influence of his association, 
and the necessity of his removal. That he is a moral leper, is 
demonstrated." The governor believed that the free Negro was 
a ready ally for the Abolitionists and to remedy the evil, he pro- 
posed that there be a county option election to ascertain whether 
the county was willing for free Negroes to remain in it or not. 
So earnest was the governor in his desire to see the free Ne- 
groes deported, that he used language in exhibiting their pitiful 
condition which might well have been ascribed to the most f anat- . 
ical of ardent Abolitionists. In his executive message of 1848, 
he said: "I ask how it is possible, that he can be other than he 
is, under the laws to which we subject him.^s Born in a hovel 
the companions of slaves, and the tool of the vicious white man, 
he naturally sympathizes with the degradation around him. By 
law, he is forbid to intermarry with the whites, to bear testi- 



67. House Journal 1840-47, p. 10. 

68. In all likelihood he referred especially to the act of 1847-48, § 
39, p. 12, which was practically a re-enactment of former acts which 

forbade the assemblage of Negroes, mulattoes and free Negroes, for 
religious worship under the leadership of Negroes, mulattoes and 
free Negroes and also forbade them assembling for the purpose of 
instruction in reading and writing. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 87 

niony against them, to learn to read antl write, to preach tlie 
word of God to his fellows, to bear arms, and to resent insults 
from the white man. Many other laws of the same character 
are on our statute book ; and in every relation from the cradle 
to the grave, he is never allowed to forget that he is an inferior 
race. By the providence of God, such is his destiny ; and accord- 
ing to naturalists, histor}\ and the experience of all mankind, 
he is regarded as the third, or an inferior species of the race of 
man. But not content with this, by all the acts of legislation we 
force him below that position in the scale of humanity to which 
he is entitled. And is this state of things to continue forever?"^'' 
The governor followed this array of facts with a further argu- 
ment for deportation. These conditions are here presented to 
demonstrate that in spite of many Christian charities perfonned 
for the Negro, still there was a woeful neglect. This neglect was 
recognized by many. Mrginia did much, but she left much un- 
done. Humanly speaking, every state and every society will al- 
ways be subject to the same criticism. Perfect care for every 
person is still unrealized — except in Utopia. 

Travellers in Virginia, however, did not note so much of the 
neglect of Negroes as they noted that Negroes were not granted 
social equality. Sir Charles Lyell, F. R. S., in a trip through 
parts of America attended St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Rich- 
mond, Va., on Sunday, the 21st of December, 1845. On that 
day the rector announced that one of the side galleries would 
be set apart exclusively for the use of Negroes. This step was 
taken that the masters and servants should unite in worship. 
Sir Charles was not acquainted with our social life and he won- 
dered why the slaves would not be raised to a better equality if 
they had been allowed to use the same galleries as the whites. 
It was then explained to him that because of the deference shown 
the whites by the blacks such a scheme as he proposed would be 
harmful to the Negroes in occupying good seats. He further 
notes the Sunday-schools for Negroes."*' Thackeray wrote from 
Richmond in 1853 : "The negroes don't shock me. or excite my 



69. Journal of the House of Delegates, Dec. 4, 1884. p. 21. 

70. Lyell's Travels in the United States— Second Visit, Vol. I, p. 
203, Sir Charles Lyell. 



88 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

compassionate feelings at all ; they are so grotesque and happy 
that I can't cry over them. The little black imps are trotting and 
grinning about the streets ; women, workmen, waiters, all well- 
fed and happy." ''^ 

Frederick Law Olmsted travelled through the South and tar- 
ried a while during 1853 in A^irginia. He does not consider the 
moral and re'ligious condition of the slaves gratifying, and ob- 
jects that, "they are forbidden by law to meet together for wor- 
ship, or for the purpose of mutual improvement.'"^- And just 
such a sentence as that if given no further qualification is the 
cause of many Negroes believing to this day that nothing was 
done for their religious uplift during slavery. We have met 
young, supposedly educated Negroes, who thought that all their 
religious Hfe as a race had been lived since 1865. It is a painful 
state of affairs. As much of Olmsted's statement as is cjuoted 
above fails to note the always stipulated privilege of servants 
going to church with their masters or with parts of their mas- 
ters' families. It would have been unjust to this State to have 
left such a bald statement to be quoted by those who might read- 
ily have been susceptible to the principle stated by Julius Caesar: 
"Men as a rule, gladly believe that which they wish." Olmsted's 
statement is qualified, however, in the next sentences with these 
words: "In the cities, there are churches especially for them, 
in which the exercises are conducted by white clergymen. In 
the country, there is usually a service after that for the whites 
especially in all the churches, which, by the way are not very 
thickly scattered." Of course, after the qualification is stated 
the first sentence loses much, if not all, of its virulent force, so 
far as it affects the religious life of the Negro, but sad to relate 
the first statement has been instilled into the minds of many 
without any reference to the succeeding qualifying statements 
that were made. In this same volume of travels a slaveholder 
tells Olmsted that in the matter of educational advantages the 
Negroes have religious instruction by means of persons reading 



71. Thackeray's Letters, p. 168. Quoted in History of United States 
1850-1877. James Ford Rhodes, p. 374. 

72. A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, by Frederick Law Olm^ 
sted, p. 113. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOrMKXT ()F THE NEGRO 89 

the Bible to them ami by means of preaching services hehl for 
them. Even though it was against the law for Negroes to meet 
unless a while man was present lliis law was not observed al- 
ways everywhere. Overseers would look in on a service and 
then pass on."-' \\'hen Olmsted asked an old Negro preacher 
how he would like to live in New York, the darkey answered, 
''(^h, dey ain't no place in de world like Old Virginny for niggers, 
massa'," — and so say they all to this day.'''* 

Francis and Theresa Pulszky after a visit to America epito- 
mized the religious status of efforts to Christianize the slaves in 
these words : "The Gospel is preached to them ; they have mor- 
ally improved ; the planters have never thrown any difficulty in 
the way of missionaries who instruct them in Christianity, ex- 
cept where they suspected them to be abolitionists ; on the con- 
trar}', they pay the clergymen for visiting the plantations : they 
like to have pious slaves, because they are more patient and more 
laborious than the unconverted ones. They object sometimes 
to their being taught to read and write, that they may not be 
exposed to the inflammatory publications of the abolitionists ; 
but the planters regularly give every assistance to the labors of 
the missionaries, who, of course, dwell most earnestly on the 
Christian obligation of the slaves to be subservient to their mas- 
ters."'^ These writers also mention the pride which the plant- 
ers feel in the unparalleled uplift"^*' of a race in so few^ years. 
Benson J. Lossing tells of the faithfulness of some of George 
Washington's slaves and notes that he saw one of Washington's 
women slaves in later years at family worship at Arlington.'" 
Thus when travellers noted the religious care of the Negro — and 
they did not always record such things — even when they saw 



73. Olmsted, pp. 106, 107. 

74. Negro Organization Society Meeting in Richmond. Va., Nov. 
7th, 1913. Addressed hy Gov. Wm. Hodges Mann, Dr. H. B. Fris- 
sell, Dr. Booker T. Washington and Major R. R. Morton, and others. 

75. White, Red. Black — Sketches of American Society in the United 
States during the visit of their Guests. By Francis and Theresa 
Pulszky. Vol. II, p. 50. 

76. Ibid., p. 50. 

77. The Home of Washington and its Association. Benson J. Los- 
sing, p. 339. 



90 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

them — during this century, they were compelled to see that the 
X'irg-inia masters were interested in the well-being of the Negro, 
and it was frequently demonstrated that intense activities were 
being maintained by missionaries in their behalf. In Norfolk 
there were four houses of divine worship for Negroes before 
1860 — three Baptist and one Methodist Episcopal, South.' s The 
First Baptist was on North side of Bute Street near Cumber- 
land ; the Second Baptist was on Northwest corner of Catharine 
and Charlotte Streets ; the Third Baptist was on the West side of 
Hawk near Bute Street ; the M. E. South was on South side of 
Bute opposite Union near Church Street. In Richmond there 
were two Baptist churches for Negroes — the First and Second — 
shown in directories up to 1856, and in the book of that year a 
Alethudist church appears. By 1858-9 another Baptist church 
was in existence.'^^ The work done in these churches under white 
leadership was comparable from the Negroes' standpoint to time 
spent in a training school ; and this training served them in good 
stead during the half century of independent church life since 
1865. 

That the Negro should have been subject to severe criticism 
was inevitable. He was an alien of a different race and color; 
far from home ; he had little or no social caste — in short, a 
social pariah ; his morals were immatured or loose ; his ambi- 
tions were frequently stifled, and his home life too often unde- 
veloped ; his religion was hedged about by superstitions and his 
reactions in the presence of religious stimuli were exceedingly 
emotional. All in all, his sins of omission and commission were 
frequently facilitated by the mischievous of both races. Some 
believed that moral principle was almost entirely absent from 
among them ; ^" others declared somewhat indiscriminate>iy that 
"they lie, steal, blaspheme ; are slothful, envious, malicious, in- 
ventors of evil things, deceivers, covenant breakers, implacable. 



78. Norfolk Directory 1851-2; Vickery's Norfolk Directory, 1859. 
Also Forrest, Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Norfolk & Vi- 
cinity pp. 326, 344. 

79. Richmond Directories 1850, p. 45; 1852, p. 155; 1855, pp. 186, 
187; 1856, pp. 254-256; 1858-9, pp. 38, 39, 1860, pp. 44, 45. 

80. C. W. W. Gooch, Esq., of Henrico County, in a prize essay on 
"Agriculture in Virginia." See Harrison & Barnes, p. 103. 



RK 1. 1 Clous DEVKI.opMKXT OP TIIF, XKGKo 91 

unmerciful, s^reatly wanting in natural affection, improvident, 
without untlerstanding and grossly immoral." ^' It was pointed 
out that marriages often availed 'little, the v^ahhath day was fre- 
quently spent in unholy ways, Negro church nicmhers frequentlv 
had to he disciplined for lapses and many of them appeared with- 
out hope in this world or the next. Masters sometimes ohjected 
that they saw little use in training their slaves religiously since 
it was expensive to hire teachers, introduced men and ])rinciples 
that were liable to cause trouble, took up too much of the slaves' 
time, and, at last, did little or no good, since the Negroes would 
be hypocrites or worse men after conversion, and further that 
baptism really meant little more than the difference between a 
Negro wet and a Negro dr}-. These certainly represent the ob- 
jections of only the worse masters, yet these objections must be 
mentioned to avoid suppressing part of the truth. Such opposi- 
tion, however, did not avail to stop the good work in l)ehalf of 
the blacks. If Negroes were not constant in their high profes- 
sions, it did not necessarily follow that they were not sincere 
when they made such professions. Going to church, preaching, 
praying, singing, exhorting, relating experiences, performing bap- 
tismal rites, attending burials, etc., etc., had strong places in their 
affections and manifestly aided in the Christian growth of some 
of the faithful. For some such occasions meant little. Many of 
those, however, who partook of the religious oft'erings of the 
times before the war were far better fitted for the duties of life 
than some of those who in a later day surfeited on religion and 
were found to be unfit. Indeed, so strong has the emphasis been 
laid on the sterling characters of many good slaves and so fond 
are our fore-parents of recounting the virtues encouraged under 
the old system that the superiority of the religious life of the 
Negro during slavery is considered so obvious as to need no sup- 
port bv facts. Those most wonderful exhibitions of fidelity, and 
Christian character on the part of the slaves during the War of 
Secession proved beyond doubt that the religious training of their 
past had not been wasted.'*- Good food, good treatment, re- 



81. C. C. Jones, "The Religious Instruction of Negroes." 

82. The American Negro, Wm. Hannil)al Thomas, p. 41: "But the 
supreme and all pervading influence wliich restrained them was 
rooted in their religious convictions." 



92 REUGIOUS DEVElvOPMENT OF THE NE;GR0 

sponsibilities, etc., all aided in preserving the homes of Mrginia 
inviolate against the sable hosts living in the presence of our 
defenceless women and children. It is conceded, however, that 
perhaps the most important factor of all in bringing about that 
laudable end was their training in the knowledge of Christ. 

Nor did interest in the Negroes' religious welfare cease while 
the battles raged. It is true that most good \'irginians went to 
the front, but the natural care-takers of the religious education 
of Negroes — the women — were left at home, and their sorrows 
in the death of loved ones and their prayers to God for suc- 
cess, seemed to spur them on to unusual zeal in breaking the 
"Bread of Life" to the hungering souls held as slaves. "We are 
very much occupied by our Sunday-schools, — white in the morn- 
ing and coloured in the afternoon" ^^ jg the record that one per- 
son leaves and such records are even yet frequently attested by 
word of mouth. Besides the work done by \^irginians to aid in 
the religious development of Negroes, the work done by Nortli- 
ern missionaries must not be forgotten or underestimated. As 
early as August, 1861, the American Missionary Association 
sent Rev. C. L. Lockwood to Virginia to work among the "con- 
trabands." By October of the same year organized work had 
begun. The Assistant Secretary of War. U. S. A., and Generals 
Butler and Wool promised the missionaries hearty co-operation. 
The work of organizing Sunday-schools, and church societies, 
and the work of inculcating habits of industry and thrift went 
hand in hand. The Negroes were in need of books and cloth- 
ing, but they did not long remain in need of an excellent Sunday- 
school meeting place since they used the mansion of Ex-Presi- 
dent John Tyler situated at Hampton.^-* "The Villa Margu- 
erite," as this beautiful home was named, by Mrs. Julia Gardiner 
Tyler, no longer heard the serenades of the band from Fort 
Monroe in honor of an Ex-President of the United States, but 
was converted into a religious training school for contrabands 
of war.^^ In 1864 an extract from the Corresponding "Secre- 



83. Diary of a Southern Refugee, during the War. By a Lady 
of Virginia (Mrs. Judith W. McGuire), Jan. 19th, 1863. 

84. Hampton and its Students by Miss M. T. Armstrong, pp. 14-13. 

85. This fact vouched for by personal letters from Dr. Lyon G. 
Tyler, President of William and Mary College, and a son of Ex- 



RKLIGIOUS inAlvI.OPMENT OF TllK NECKO 93 

tary's report of "The I-'riends Association for the Aid and Ele- 
vation of the Freedmcn" shows that the Negroes near l^'ort Mon- 
roe had l)uilt a ]ilank cliurcli and they considered it so sacred 
that it seemed that tliey ahnost worshipped the ImiliHn^-. It 
further stated : "Their rehgion is one of faith, and yet one of 
strong excitement and feehng. They do not think they have had 
a good time unless they can make a noise. . . Their ])ray- 

ers are repetitions and much the same, and yet put up in nuich 
earnestness, and as we believe, have called down the blessings 
of God." ^*^ Besides the American Missionary Association and 
the Friends Association the other churches of the North showed 
an active interest in this work. In 1862 the Executive Board of 
the American Baptist Home Mission Society had voted to enter 
the Southern fields "as the providence of God might open to 
them." Advances were made during 1863 and 1864."^' 

Mrginians were very proud of their Negroes and well they 
might have been. \'irginia Negroes were the picked of the 
picked. In the first instance, away back in Africa only the able 
ones survived the wars or marauding expeditions in which they 
were captured in their African homes, and after which they were 
marched as captives to the sea-coast, to be sold to slave deal- 
ers. ^^ The African slave sellers had made the march to the 
sea at a rapid pace and this constituted a severe test in itself, 
since the captives had been given little food on the march; of 
course, those the conquerors did not attempt to bring to the 
coast had been murdered on the spot. The slave dealers then 
subjected the captives to a minute examination and if defects 
were found the unfortunate rejected came to a terrible end. If 
accepted, the captives were then offered to ship captains en- 
gaged in supplying the American slave markets. The white 
slave traders in turn, would be particular that only good ones 



President John Tyler. "The Villa Marguerite" is now the Dixie Hos- 
pital in which colored girls are in training to become nurses. 

86. See "Quaker Pamphlets" in Park Avenue Meeting House Li- 
brary—Report of Susan H. Clark, a teacher at Mill creek, near For- 
tress Monroe. \'a. Fifth Month, 11th; 1804. 

87. Hist, of the Richmond Theological Seminary, C. H. Corey, pp. 
52, 53. 

88. See Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. lOfi-U?. 



94 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

were bought, since weak ones would hardly be able to undergo 
the horrors of the "middle passage" and if they did survive in 
a weakened state no buyers could be found in America. Thoughts 
of the "middle passage" with its pollutions, arise as a stench in 
their nostrils to this day and lucky indeed were the Negroes who 
happened to put feet on the soil of Mrginia after that gruesome 
ordeal. The slave owners in America next subjected them to 
a rigid test and by this time it was well assured that the slaves 
were hearty specimens physically. Of course, none of these 
tests dealt with their intellects or morals; these were dealt with 
by the inland slave trade. If a Negro on a Virginia plantation 
proved unmanageable, liable to cause further trouble, or even 
especially vicious, there was one road he must travel — South. 
To be sold South was a prospect which was exceedingly hateful 
to Virginia Negroes, and to many death would have been almost 
preferable. A check on their evil deeds thus existed in the form 
of an understanding that wrongdoing meant their sale to cotton 
and rice growers in the far South. Virginia Negroes were fur- 
ther selected by an efficiency process. The house Negroes, in 
opposition to those in the quarters, were further selected, be- 
cause of intelligence, neatness, docility, etc., and from the house 
Negroes all agree that we get the noblest specimens of Negro 
manhood and womanhood which came through slaver}^ times. 
The Negroes were always imitative and the house Negroes of 
A'irginia were thrown into as choice an environment as could 
be found anywhere. That they were "quality" Negroes after 
this series of selective processes needs no further elaboration. 

Among the distinguished Negroes who did religious work 
worthy of any time in the world's history, while living in ante- 
bellum days, we have chosen several for particular mention at 
this time. George Lisle was a Virginia Negro, born about 1750, 
and served as a body servant to a British officer. He preached 
as he moved about the country and a man that he baptized, Rev. 
Andrew Bryan, organized one of the first Negro churches in 
America, a church in Savannah, Ga., about 1788. In the island 
of Jamaica, Lisle did notable work in directing missionary ef- 
forts toward that island and was himself the pastor of a church 
consisting of nearly 4,000 members. ^^ 



89. The Negro Church, pp. 33, 34. 



KKl.lGIOUS DEVELOPMI^NT OF Till'; XKGKO 95 

Lott Carey was also a \'irginia Negro. Ikhu a slave in Charles 
City County. He was born about 1780 and moved to Richmond 
about 1804 and there worked in a tobacco factory. I lis life was 
very wicked until he joined the First l*ai)tist Church. This 
event occurred about 1807. The church encouraged him to be 
a minister at a later date. Lott learned to read, studied hard, 
acquired much knowledge from a wide range of reading and was 
licensed to preached. He decided to become a missionary to 
Africa, announced his intention at a ni<,dit school, afterward re- 
fused a $200 raise in salary which would ha\e made him the 
recipient of $1,000 per year provided he remained with his em- 
ployer. He preached in the First Church before leaving, and 
made a good impression. Collin Teague, an excellent Xegro, 
went with him to Africa on the shi]^ "Nautilus" which left Nor- 
folk for Africa on Jan. 23d., 1821. Lott became a government 
official in Liberia, did a good work in helping the people in his 
new home and was mortally injured in 1828 while casting car- 
tridges to defend his colonists against the natives.^" 

John Stewart was born of free parents in Powhatan County, 
Virginia. His parents were good members of the Bap- 
tist Church, but John grew up as a sinner. While going from 
his home to Marietta, Ohio, he was robbed of all his money and 
"this circumstance brought him to reflect seriously on the state 
of his soul." He became a Methodist and preached among the 
Wyandott Indians as early as 1816, near Upper Sandusky, Ohio. 
His work was very influential and much appreciated.^^ 

Although John Chavis was a North Carolina Negro by birth 
he spent part of his life in Mrginia at Tvcxington. By a court 
record of 1802 it is shown that he had been a regular student in 
\\'ashington Academy, now Washington and Lee University. 
At Princeton he studied privately under Dr. W'itherspoon. Cha- 
vis became a licentiate in the Presbyterian church and preached. 
His school in which he taught both whites and blacks was justly 
famous for his scholarship and his pupils' fame in later years.^^ 



90. Lives of \'irginia Baptist Ministers — James B. Taylor, pp. .390- 
444. 

91. Missionar\' Pioneer — Memoir of John Stewart. Published by 
Joseph Mitchell. 

92. The Xegro Church, p. 35: Ballagh. History of Slavery in \'ir- 
ginia. p. 110. 



96 REiviGious de;veIvOpme;nt op* the negro 

The case of Chavis was reversed in Henry Evans. Evans was 
a Virginia free Negro but his distinguishing work was done in 
North CaroHna. About the year 1800 Evans began to preach to 
the blacks at Fayetteville and in spite of persecutions he con- 
tinued his good work. His good life and able messages won to 
his side tlie white people and eventually his work became the 
basis of a Methodist Church of mixed membership. Bishop 
Capers said of him, he "was undoubtedly the best preacher of 
his time in that quarter and was so remarkable as to have be- 
come the greatest curiosity of the town insomuch that distin- 
guished visitors hardly felt that they might pass a Sunday in 
Fayetteville without hearing him preach. ^^ His own words in 
the presence of death uttered as he stood tottering by his pulpit 
are eminently worthy of being preserved: "I have come to say 
my last word to you. It is this : None but Christ. Three times 
have I had my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel to you. 
Three times have I broken ice on the edge of the water and 
swam across the Cape Fear to preach the gospel to you ; and, 
if in my last hour I could trust to that, or anything but Christ 
crucified, for my salvation, all should be lost and my soul perish 
forever." Soon afterwards this good man died. 

"Uncle Jack," the African preacher — perhaps the most inter- 
esting character developed before the war — was kidnapped from 
Africa at the age of seven and brought to America in one of the 
last cargoes of slaves sold into Virginia. He was bought by an 
obscure citizen of Nottoway County, \'irginia.^^ In those days 
there was little religion in that section and chances seemed poor 
for a Negro to develop a strong Christian character. Jack was 
densely ignorant and perhaps would have remained so, had not 
a man stirred him by predicting that the world would come to an 
end in a few days. The Negro was then about forty years of 
age, yet he set to work to learn his letters with his master's chil- 
dren as his teachers. As soon as the key to knowledge was ob- 
tained he applied himself diligently to the Scriptures and soon 
memorized large portions of the sacred writings. Revs. John 



93. McTyeire, History of Methodism; The Negro Church, p. 36; 
Bassctt, State, North Carolina pp. 58, 59. 

94. The African Preacher — By Rev. William S. White. 



KKLIGIOUS l)i;vi:i,()l'MKNT OF TllK NKGKU 97 

Blair Smith, William Mill and Arcliihald Alexander were partly 
responsible for his conversion and were hel])ful lo him in gain- 
ing further knowledge of Scriptural exegesis. "Uncle jack" was 
after a time ])reparcd for an examination to enter the ministry. 
He successfully passed and was ordained as a minister of the 
Baptist church. His charge was in the country and he did his 
work well. His reputation was so favorable among the whites 
that when some dispute arose among his owners concerning 
their property in him the neighbors of the old preacher, to get it 
settled, paid for his freedom,*^'' and set him up in a little house 
and lot. Plantations were never closed to him and masters and 
overseers welcomed him as a friend. A Negro wrongdoer once 
begged to be punished by his master rather than be sent to "Un- 
cle Jack" to be disciplined. As a Baptist he was broad-minded 
and even welcomed the Presbyterians into the county. He spent 
his time learning and imparting knowledge. His life was a fear- 
less fight for the truth. Once a Negro preacher named Camp- 
bell caused a schism among Negro Baptists by contending that 
God revealed Himself to the Negroes through the Holy Spirit 
and not through the Bible ; ^^ also that it was a sin to eat pig's 
meat. The old ^African preacher went to the place where Camp- 
bell was preaching and defeated him in open debate. "Uncle 
Jack" used excellent English and had a marvelous faculty of 
illustrating his point wdth incidents drawn from Nature. His 
language was often pictorial, yet very pointed. His services 
were widely required for the funerals of slaves. Sometimes he 
went as far as thirty miles on such a mission. It would be im- 
possible to fail to mention the sincere humility of Jack. He did 
not dissemble ; he was true. On one occasion he refused a good 
black suit because he did not want to dress better than his fel- 
low Negroes and because he feared that he would think about 
his fine clothes even in meeting. After the laws forbidding Ne- 
groes to preach had been passed he stopped and would not 



95. A similar case was related to me by Mr. Frank Armistead, a 
lawyer of Williamsburg, \'a. 

96. A Negro preacher living at Doswell, Va., recentlj' told me that 
before the war Negroes in his neighborhood thought that white folks 
had no religion because they got it from the Bible instead of by di- 
rect revelation, as Negroes thought they got theirs. 

—7 



98 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

preach again even though he was assured that he would not 
suffer from that law. He thought his preaching "no better than 
the ringing of an old cow-bell and ought to be stopped." In 
reality, others considered him the best preacher in that section 
of the country. Whites and blacks learned from him, and he 
was so well thought of that a regular place was reserved for 
him during family worship at Mountain Hall, the home of Dr. 
James Jones of Nottoway. Dr. J. H. Rice wrote of this Negro 
preacher in the J^irginia Literary and Bvangelical Magazine: 
"Jack possesses the entire confidence of the whole neighborhood 
in which he lives. No man doubts his integrity, or the sincerity 
of his piety. All classes treat him with marked respect. Every- 
body gives unecjuivocal testimony to the excellence of his char- 
acter." He died at a good old age and his death was sincerely 
mourned by all. We have sketched the life of this unusual man 
at some length in order that we might show some of the possi- 
bilities under the old regime. It is true that only an exceed- 
ingly small number did, or ever will, surpass this noble character 
because few did or will pay the price that he paid. His life 
of humility and unselfishness is monumental and stands as an ex- 
ample to many in the ministry even at the present time. It is in- 
teresting to note that "Uncle Jack" and Nat Turner — both 
preachers — were contemporaries. It is often pointed out thai 
society drove Nat Turner to despair and caused him to be a 
ruthless murderer, but, it is as frequently overlooked that the 
same society which made one man's name detestable among right 
thinking people, made of the other man, "Uncle Jack," one of 
the noblest characters in Virginia Negro history. His generous 
white friends have preser\-ed his name as one of the proudest 
memories of Negro religious achievement. It does seem that 
our literature would be poorer indeed without the descriptions 
of such excellent characters as "African Bella," "Aunt Betty," 
"Springfield Bob" Smith,^" "Mammy Harriet"'''^ and "Aunt 
Jenny." '"^ To many, these characters would be passed as be- 



97. Sketches of Old Virginia Family Servants, by a Grand-Daugh- 
ter of General Nelson, pp. 25, .54, Gl. 

98. Memorials of a Southern Planter, Susan Dal)ney Smedes. 

99. Virginia: Past and Present. By Elizabeth Lee, pp. 19, 20. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT oF Tlli; M-.C.UO 99 

neath their disunity to notice, yet their struggles, apparently 
insignificant, were as heroic fights for character as any that we 
meet at present. Christianity did mucli for them. 

Other prominent Negroes wore ]u)vu in \ iri;inia during the 
period of slavery, such as John Jasper, James 11. Ilohnes, and 
Booker T. Washington, hut hecause their princijial achievements 
came in the period after the war, we shall reserve further men- 
tion of tlirni until later. 

The progress wliich the Negro made during- the first sixtv- 
five years of the Nineteenth Century was without ])arallel. up 
to that time, in the world's history. Slaxery lessons were taught 
in a hard school, hut they were lessons taught well. TIalf-way 
efficiency could scarcely satisfy the Anglo-Saxon. AlfMie}' was 
liherally expended that the Negro might he provided with the 
benefits of religion. That the expenditures of those days were 
not so great as those of the present need not occasion surprise. 
That so much time, energy and money were expended does oc- 
casion some. The benefits of slavery were vastly more, we be- 
lieve, to the advantage of the Negro than to the white man.'' 
Some writers at present seem to assume that the Negro was as 
civilized when he was imported into \'irginia during the seven- 
teenth centurv' as he was at the end of the War of Secession. 
Such bathos is unendurable. The more manly and fair-minded 
attitude is that taken by Booker Washington when he said: "I 
kno.w, despite all the conflicting opinions, and with a full knowl- 
edge of all the Negroes' weaknesses, that only a few centuries 
ago they went into slavery in this country pagans, and they 
came out Christians ; they went into slavery so much property, 
they came out American citizens ; they went into slavery without 
a language, they came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon 
tongue; they went into slavery with the chains clanking about 
their wrists, they came out with the Aiuerican ballot in their 
hands." If the Negro had gained nothing in slavery except 
knowledge of the English language, some understanding of gov- 
ernment, the habit of lalior, and the Christian religion, his ex- 
perience would have nevertheless been invaluable. That the Ne- 
gro has achieved so much as a race is a just matter of pride, yet 



1. Mcado. Old Churches. Vol. I. p. 90 note. 



100 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

history shows that the Negro has had more done for him vol- 
untarily hy the Caucasian race than any other race ever did for 
another. 

A host of witnesses testify to the opportunities for building 
strong character structures during slavery days and another 
host will testify that the opportunities were frequently grasped. 
All praise to the many A'irginia Christians, both white and black, 
who cheerfully though frequently through intense suffering, 
aided in the great service of endeavoring to help a race born in 
darkness see the light. Few Negroes now living have given its 
due to the work done for their religious development during 
slavery; few whites have known enough about Negroes since 
then, to give them their due. Many Negroes remember the laws 
prohibiting preaching by Negroes, or those prohibiting the Ne- 
groes to learn to read and write, yet few indeed seem to re- 
member that the white preachers and Bible teachers stepped into 
the breach left by the absence of black preachers, and fewer yet 
seem to remember the circumstances that influenced the passage 
of the reading and writing laws, or the fact that such laws were 
practically dead letters on every plantation where the Negroes 
wished to read and white children were there to teach. Masters 
neglected many things yet they did try to understand their duties 
as masters and then tried properly to perform them. 

A most excellent summary of religious effort for the Negro 
during slavery is presented in a pamphlet written by Gustave 
J. Orr, entitled "The Education of the Negro:" "I may say 
then, that it was the universal custom of all the churches of the 
South to receive slaves into full and regular membership, that the 
spiritual welfare of the colored church members was looked after 
with great solicitude by the official members of the different 
churches ; that the slaves and their masters worshipped in the 
same houses, the only distinction being that different portions 
of these' houses were assigned for occupancy to the two races; 
that, at Holy Communion, they partook of the same elements, 
administered by the same hands, at the same time, but always at 
different tables ; that the ministers were universally expected to 
visit and labor with the slaves pastorally administering to them 
the consolations of our holy religion in sickness and burying 
them when, dead ; that in many places, special services, at least 



REUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 101 

once on the Sabbath, were api)ointecl for the exclusive benefit 
of the slaves; that very generally Sabbath schools were estab- 
lished for the religious instruction of the slaves in which they 
were taught orally from catechisms carefully prepared ])y the 
ablest divines of the different denominations ; . . . and lastly 
that it was the custom on many of the plantations for cultivated 
Christian mistresses to assemble, with their own smaller chil- 
dren, the younger servants of the household on the afternoon 
of the Sabbath, and to read to them and expound the sacred 
oracles, and drill them catechetically for the purpose of fixing 
in their memories the precious truths therein inculcated." 

Just at the close of the war there were thousands of Xegro 
church members and many of those were so active in religious 
work as to cause some modern Christians to blush when the 
works of the two are exhibited for comparison. Even though 
the Negro was frequently poorly equipped, he did try to take 
part in his church sen^ices. His efiforts were crude and emo- 
tional, yet this is not very dififerent from what the white re- 
vivals at the end of the eighteenth century showed.- Ignorance 
is never so restrained under excitement as is culture. The Ne- 
gro's wrestle wath the Devil was very real ; his religion was a ter- 
rific reality, and even if he did dream dreams and see visions, we 
need not be too sure that his religion was not the kind best suited 
for his comprehension at that time. "In his simple, earnest, affec- 
tionate and believing heart, in his ecstasies of love for 'Mas'r 
Jesus,' and in his tenderness to whatever appeals to liim in na- 
ture, are principles of religion as saving, I venture to say, as the 
precise creeds, and the solemn and exact manners of the clmrch- 
men." ^ If his religion seemed to have much warmth and little 
intellect ; ours seemed to have much intellect and little warmth. 
It is not at all certain that either of us has attained perfection in 
a religion for universal application. Both have valuable con- 
stituents. 

Our forefathers lived in constant contact with Negroes and 
they knew their black friends and the l)lacks knew their white 



2. Adams, A Southside \'ie\v of Slavery, pp. 5,1, 57, 171; also E. 
A. Pollard. Black Diamonds, pp. 34, 86. 

3. Pollard, Black Diamonds, p. 87. 



102 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

friends. The Negro's ideals were raised by living in contact 
with a people famed for idealism. Indeed, the Negro witnessed 
the physical vanquishment of the South by arms ; he never did 
witness a Southerner declare that principles can be decided by 
force : he saw A'irginians overcome in combat ; he did not see 
them forsake their trusts. The contact with men of honor had 
a positive influence over many lives of Negroes before the war. 
A change came. This contact is almost entirely gone now. The 
best white people rarely see the best Negroes. The best Ne- 
groes are disturbed by the worst whites. The opposite ends of 
the races meet. Our forefathers had tremendous problems on 
their hands, yet they measured up to the full statute of man- 
hood by standing for principles and caring for the religious wel- 
fare of their slaves and Negro employees. They midertook this 
task as though they were seeking a pearl of great price. The 
pages which are to follow will show what their training meant 
to the Negroes wdien they became independent of white guidance 
and restraint. 



RELIGIOUS I)i:\i:i.(il'.MKNT (H- Till'; N'l'CKO 10,^ 



1865-1913. 

If the religious life of the Negro in \'irginia be compared to 
the growth of wheat, we may say that during the seventeenth 
century the sowing was done; the lirst jjart of the eighteenth 
represeiUcd the period of little growth during the winter; from 
the middle eighteenth to the end of that centur}- is like unto 
spring with its consecjuent new life; the first sixty-five years of 
the nineteenth show the wheat "in the l)00t," and the latter i)art 
of that century and the beginning of the twentieth show the 
harvest of golden grain, some seed bearing thirty, some sixty 
and some a hundred fold. Tt is gratifying to be living in the 
time of harvest. The care and intelligent oversight of the ])ast 
must now secure their rewards. 

Slavery was not a beautiful dream ; it was a tremendous real- 
ity. Even though many benefits were derived by those held in 
bondage, yet we must ever be mindful that man and beast are 
restive under restraint and detest the enthralled condition. Some 
very placid men and a few very quiet animals seem to suffer less 
inconvenience than others of more liberty-loving dispositions but 
the love of freedom is deep-rooted. This desire for freedom 
seems to come to man with visions of adolescence and we do 
the greatest violence to nature when man's will is held in bond- 
age. To enslave the body is bad ; to enthrall the will is worse. 
The Negroes had learned during slavery days of the Israelites, 
and their Egyptian bondage, of the Egyptian task master's lash, 
of the wanderings in tlie Wilderness, and the final deliverance 
of a land into their hands, and we can be very sure that in the 
secret meditations of many slaves it was thought that their own 
condition was identical with that of the Israelites of old. 
Though manv slaves were true to their masters and some mas- 
ters were true to their slaves ^ even after the arbitrament of the 



1. We append an extract from tlie diary of John B. Minor, dated 
May 8th, 1865 — less than a month after the surrender of Lee and 
before the bruised bodies and spirits of X'irpinians had recovered from 
the shocks of warfare: "At a meeting of ticntlcnien at Dr. Maupin's 
to-night it was a subject of consideration wliat sliould lie done in 






104 REI.IGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

sword had made it evident that human bondage was no longer 
to be tolerated in the United States, still most Negroes felt that 
they, like the Hebrew children, were released from an Egyptian 
bondage, and were entering into the Promised Land. Their 
songs indicate it ; their actions when no sounds were heard, spoke 
louder than human utterance. Their new freedom was soon 
tried out. One of the most natural channels of expression for 
this new found freedom was to indulge in religious meetings, 
as frequent and as long extended as the black worshippers 
pleased. During slavery they were limited in time because the 
masters wanted their best service on the next day. Now, Ne- 
groes, good, bad and indifferent, turned themselves loose on this 
devoted Commonwealth as preachers or exhorters, and religious 
orgies were held, the equal of which this State had never known 
before. It was only natural that such excesses should have fol- 
lowed. It is a high tribute to the race that they survived such 
leadership and have now developed a different ideal of the min- 
istry. 

For the first two years after the war, the status quo of the 
social position of the Negro was suddenly changed in his own 
eyes from that which existed before and during the war. Much 
was heard of being treated as a man and brother.- The North- 
ern missionaries, "scalawags," "carpet baggers," and Negro 
preachers were largely responsible for this inflation. During 
these years the Negro, under the influence of the same and 
other misguided or false friends, became so assertive that he 
rapidly lost caste in the eyes of the best elements among the 
whites. Nothing could have been much more tragical in its 



respect to the Negroes and I found it was the almost universal sen- 
timent to abandon them to their fate. They were conscientious and 
humane men who expressed this sentiment, but I cannot see how we 
can reconcile it with our duty thus to 'whistle them down the wind 
to prey at fortune,' as soon as the prospect of profit or advantage to 
ourselves is taken away. My present purpose is to retain and sup- 
port and care for mine as long as they behave themselves and I am 
able to do so and I pray God to enable me to fulfil my design to the 
good of the bodies and souls of the poor hapless creatures." 

2. The following portion of a verse from the Bible was widely 
quoted: "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created 
us?" Malachi 2:10. 



RKTJCTOT'S nnVKI.OPMKXT OI- Till': XKCKO 105 

consequences for the Negro, since many of the iUs that his 
black flesh is now heir to have come upon him as a consequent 
of liis fatal choice. 'I'hc host elements amonu: the whites re- 
main to this (la\ : liis false friends departed, h'ven thou^jh the 
farce of forcing a ballot into the hand of the ignorant Negro 
nettled the white men of \'irginia who would not brook the polit- 
ical supremacy of their former servants, yet there was always 
something within winch made the whites anxious to do good to 
those creatures who were rather "sinned against than sinning." 
Such men as the Rev. J. W. I lunnicutt and John ITavvxhurst, 
both radicals, had absolute control of the Negro voters and 
under such leadership the political situation became distressing 
to lovers of good government. This i)rou(l State. \^irginia, then 
witnessed a spectacle whicli it never saw before — the reins of 
its government in the hands of Negroes. For one dizzy moment 
"the bottom rail was on top" and joy among the blacks w^as 
unconfined. Perhaps the fact that Reconstruction never became 
so severe in \'irginia as in other Southern States helped to soften 
the Caucasian heart. There was also the chance in every good 
deed done to aid the Negro religiously, to prove to the world 
that the care and oversight maintained before the war were not 
the results of sheer self-interest, but were oftenest performed 
from the best of motives. 

\\'hile the smoke of battle was still rolling over the hills of 
Mrginia and before the great battle at Gettysburg had been 
fought or the siege of Mcksburg had proved successful, "the 
members of St. John's Church (African M. E. South, at Nor- 
folk, \'a.), expressed their dissatisfaction with existing condi- 
tions, and the Official Board :\Iay 4, 1863, voted unanimously to^ 
annul the discipline of the M. E. Church South." ^ With the' 
aid of the Federal officer, George Dix. the church property was 
secured for the congregation of blacks and the membership 
agreed to join the Baltimore Annual Conference of the African 
]\Iethodist Episcopal Church. Largely through the agencies of 
Professor Woodbury, superintendent of the government school 
in Norfolk, and Bishop Wayman, the decision to become mem- 
bers of the A. M. E. communion was consummated. The work 



3. Butt, I. L. African Methodism in \'iri,Mnia, pp. 32, 33. 



106 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

for this denomination in A'irg-inia was not independent at first, 
bnt was carried on through the Baltimore Conference from 
1864 until May, 1867, when the Virginia Conference was or- 
ganized at Richmond, Va. 

In the face of the foregoing facts which so conclusively in- 
dicate a real secession of African Methodists from the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, how is it possible that a talented 
Negro writer should have so distorted the whole spirit of Vir- 
ginians and perhaps that of the whole South, concerning the 
affiliation of Negro members, as to write : "The result of the 
war was the complete expulsion of Negroes from white churches. 
Little has been said of this, but perhaps it was in itself the most 
singular and tremendous result of slavery. The Methodist 
Church South simply set its Negro members bodily out of doors. 
They did it with some consideration for their feelings, with as 
much kindliness as crass unkindliness can show, but they vir- 
tually said to all their black members — to the black mammies 
whom they have almost fulsomely praised and whom they re- 
member in such astonishing numbers to-day, to the polite and 
deferential old servant, to whose character they build mon- 
imients — they said to them: 'You cannot worship God with 
lis' .... Flagrantly unchristian as this course was, it was 
still in some ways better than the absolute withdrawal of church 
fellowship on the part of the Baptists or the policy of the Epis- 
copalians which was simply that of studied neglect and dis- 
couragement which froze, harried and well nigh invited the 
black communicants to withdraw" ? ^ We know that the es- 
tablishment of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in 1870 
was really best for both races, yet how can it be correct to 
speak of setting people out of doors when they voluntarily went 
out? Is it fair to whites or blacks so to emphasize facts as to 
distort the truth? Is it not well known that when the Colored 
Methodist Episcopal Church was set up the buildings used ex- 
clusively by Negroes before 1870 were given to them, and no 
desire was shown to mistreat any or set anybody "bodily out of 
doors?" History cannot be sacrificed for the sake of rhetoric. 



4. Tlie Net?ro in the South, p. 173, from chapter entitled "Religion 
in the .Soutli." by W. E. B. Du Bois. 



Kia.TCKirs ^^:vI■T.(l^^n• XT or ttik xkcko 107 

\\e shall next sec wlicilirr the white liaptists were g^uihy of 
negleeting the Negro memhers or not. A \ery xaluahle manu- 
script letter preserved in the Arcliives of the v^tate 1-ihrary at 
Richmond, \a., written liy Horace C. ITovey to C. I'oindexter, 
descrihes some of the events of that memoral)le Sunday alter 
the occupation of Richmond h\- the Federal Army. It relates 
that the Federal otticers decided to encourage church services on 
that day hut resolved to su])ervise them with delegates from the 
Christian Commission. The morning service at the First African 
Church passed without incident. ]\Ir. Hovey, one of the super- 
visors, heard, however, that there was danger of disturhance 
in the afternoon and wlien he arrived he found Dr. Ryland, the 
white pastor, talking to some excited colored soldiers. The 
troopers were Abolitionists from Massachusetts and objected to 
Dr. Rvland a^ a v^ecessionist and because he had advised the 
slaves to stay with their masters. Mr. Hovey showed to these 
soldiers the good sense of the advice given and it was agreed 
that the congregation should decide whether their regular jiastor 
shoukl preach or some other person. The congregation voted 
in favor of their own pastor; the doors were opened and the 
meeting concluded without further disturbance. We believe that 
such decisions may have continued but for the influence of agi- 
tators. It was soon evident that the day of the white pastor's 
desirability for the Xegro pulpit had passed, v^peaking at the 
Centennial of the First Baptist Church. Dr. Ryland said, con- 
cerning giving up his great work of twenty-five years: "At the 
close of the war. the Constitution and rules of the order were 
so far modified, as to adapt them to the new^ relations wliich the 
colored people sustained to society. The Pastor then offered 
his resignation, froiu a belief that they would naturally and 
jitstlx i)refer a minister of their own color. This resignation 
was proposed and accepted with mutual kindness and good 

will."' '' 

In General Associations from 1867 to 1874 an active interest 
was manifested by the P.aptists. yet ])ractical eiTorts were sadly 



5. The First Century of the First Baptist Church, pp. 2(>3. 264. 
Also see a short History of tlie Cilficld Baptist Cluirch of Peters- 
burg. Va., 1803-190;!, by Ricliani Kennard. 



108 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

handicapped by lack of means throug-hoiit the impoverished 
State. At the Lynchburg meeting of the General Association 
in 1867 the Committee on the Instruction of the Colored People 
said : "Our obligation to impart religious instruction to the col- 
ored race is unquestionable. It has long been acknowledged and 
acted upon by this body We shall be culpably in- 
consistent, if, while making the effort to send the message of 
salvation to Africa, we neglect to proclaim it among the African.^ 
in our midst.'"*'' This preamble was followed by suitable reso- 
lutions. At the same Association the report of the Sunday- 
school and Publication Board for Virginia showed progress in 
distributing Bibles to the Freedmen. In 1868 the Committee on 
Instruction reported to the General Assembly at Alexandria : 
"We feel now as we have always felt, the deepest interest in the 
spiritual welfare of this people. Recent events though weaken- 
ing our influence with them, have not impaired our obligations 
to give them the word of life, etc."" The General Association 
meeting at Norfolk in 1870 instructed the Sunday-school and 
Bible Board to give attention to "the establishment and main- 
tenance of Sunday-schools among the colored people of this 
State." '^ At the morning session of the General Association 
June 1st, 1871, J. B. Watkins, Corresponding Secretary of the 
Sunday-school and Bible Board, declared that the Board had 
endeavored to carry out the instructions of the last Association 
concerning establishing colored Sunday-schools. Rev. T. W. 
Sydnor, D. D., had been appointed to undertake the work and 
"traveled hundreds of miles ; visited churches and Sunday-school 
Conventions ; delivered sermons and addresses ; distributed Tes- 
taments, and organized directly seven colored Sunday-schools, 
besides influencing the establishment of others, and encouraging 
and strengthening existing ones." The good work of Dr. Sydnor 
continued during the year succeeding the last Association. We 
find a very interesting entry in the report of the missionary of 
the Sunday-school and Bible Board to the General Association 
at the Staunton meeting in May, 1872, which reads : "One great 



\ 



6. American Baptist Year Book 1868. 

7. Ibid 18()9. 

8. ll)i(l 1S71. 



REUGIOUS DEVEI.OPMENT uK THE iNEGKU 109 

mistake that the colored people have made has ])een t(j hold po- 
litical meetings in connection with their religious assemblages. 
I endeavor to discourage this in every suitable way. ruid T find 
that my presence at their meetings sometimes eml)arrasses the 
politicians verv' much."' in 1873 because of insufficient funds 
it was necessary to dispense with the very excellent services of 
Dr. Sydnor but the l^oard pledged to do its best. The Domestic 
Mission Board at this same Association reported that nuich labor 
had been expended on the colored ])cople with happy results. In 
1874 the General Association was gratified to state that the 
• American Baptist Publication Society had appointed Rev. Walter 
H. Brooks, colored, of Richmond, as general Sunday-school mis- 
sionary among Negroes in \'irginia. The cumulative evidence 
of the above statements would indicate that there was indis- 
putably a vital interest in the religious welfare of the lately en- 
slaved race. In 1879, a committee of eight appointed in the 
General Baptist Association "to consider and report on the pro- 
priety of cultivating more intimate relations with the colored Bap- 
tists of the State" '■^ brought in its recommendations that i\ve cor- 
responding delegates to the Colored Baptist Convention be ap- 
pointed, and seats be provided at all times in the White Association 
for invited delegates from the Colored Convention and provision 
be made or caused to be made for the "hospitable and appropriate 
entertainment of said colored delegates during the sessions of 
the Association ;" further, that the District Associations endeavor 
to promote kind relationships between the races and the evan- 
gelization of the blacks ; further, that white Baptists aid the black 
Baptists in acquiring knowledge, to increase their efficiency by 
means of ministers' institutes, etc., and lastly, that the General 
Association should aid any influence that made the desired bet- 
terment of the religious life of Negroes. ^'^ These references 
prove anything but an "absolute withdrawal of church fellow- 
ship" on the part of the whites. 

The matter looks different from another angle. We see that 
the Negroes soon after the war seceded from the Baptist Church 
and formed their own ecclesiastical organization, had their own 



9. Minutes of Virginia Baptist General Association 1<S79 sec. 13. 

10. Minutes of Virginia Baptist General Association 1879 sec. 13. 



110 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

preachers and worshipped in their own churches. ^^ The whites 
offered no objection and in reahty encouraged the Negroes in 
this course. Before the close of 1866 a number of Negro Bap- 
tist churches of the South had formed a connection with North- 
ern Baptist societies and in August, 1866, a Convention known 
as the American Baptist (African) Missionary Convention met 
at Richmond, Va.^^ in Alexandria, Culpeper, Fredericksburg, 
Williamsburg, Portsmouth and Richmond, schools were main- 
tained whicli offered special opportunities for training a Negro 
ministry.^'' 

On yiay 9th, 1867, the Virginia Baptist State Convention 
(Colored), was organized in the Zion Baptist Church at Ports- 
mouth. A"a., by members of the Norfolk Union Baptist and Col- 
ored Shiloh Associations. The first anniversary was held in the 
Bute Street Baptist Church at Norfolk. May 13th. I868.I'' It 
would seem that this Negro ecclesiastical organization, instead of 
suffering from neglect — as the Negro Baptists are said to have 
suffered — had had no desire to have any deaHngs with the white 
organization and certainly had made no formal report to the 
whites of their existence as a church body up to the time of the 
following communication: "The Virginia Baptist State Con- 
vention to the General Baptist Association of Virginia,, in its 
48th Annual Session in the city of Petersburg, Va., 1871 ; Dear 
Brethren — We greet you with Christian salutations: We are 
a body of Baptists organized into a State Convention in 1868, 
for missionary work in this, our noble State of Virginia. 

"Our sole object is the diffusion of the Gospel of Christ and 
the interest of his kingdom, by sending out missionaries, plant- 
ing and training churches, and assisting feeble Baptist churches 
in the support of their pastors throughout the State of Virginia 
as far as lieth within the ability of the Convention. 

"We are adherents to one faith, one Lord and one baptism, 
yea, to all the vital principles of the great Baptist family, there- 
fore, we respectfully ask correspondence with you in the laud- 
able work of evangelizing this our State. For opening cor- 



11. Peyton, History of Augusta County, p. 88. 

12. American Annual Cyclopedia, 1866, p. 58. 

13. ll)id, 1867, p. 87. 

14. American Baptist Year Book, 1869. 



Ki'i.iGiors i)i;\'i;i,<)i'.MKNT oi" riiiv nicgro 111 

respondence witli us. we send with this letter our I)cloved Pres- 
ident, Richard Wells, of Richmond, and pastor of the Kbenezer 
Church in said city. Our Convention reccnth' met in Lynch- 
burg. We have not our statistics for 18/1 at hand. Our sta- 
tistics for 1870 stand: churches Z7 \ Baptisms 1,800; Total 
membership 22,387. We received several additions at our recent 
annual session. We have a Sabbath-school Union under the aus- 
pices of this Con\entii)u. It is composed of 26 schools and 
3.100 scholars. 

"Pray for us dear brethren; may the love of Christ which 
passeth all knowledge, dwell richly within your hearts. 

"Receive our belo\ed President and representative in love, 
and may the blessings of Christ, the great head of the churches, 
ever preside over you, direct your deliberations and work for 
our common blaster is our prayer. Amen. 

"Done by order of the above named Convention, in its fourth 
Annual Session in Lynchburg, A^a.. May 1871. 

"Richard Wells, President, 

"E. Carprew, Corresponding Sec'y." ^^ 

The committee from the Baptist General Association of \'ir- 
ginia, with the eminent Dr. J. B. Jeter as chairman, to whom 
the above communication was referred, respectfully reported 
that the right to organize and govern churches and provide for 
all necessary arrangements for worship and prosperity was freely 
acknowledged to be the privilege and right of the colored breth- 
ren ; congratulations were sent to the Convention because of their 
successful work in spreading the Gospel, and the kind. Christian 
sentiments expressed in their communication were heartily re- 
ciprocated ; ])roffers of aid in their pious labors were pledged in 
ways deemed expedient. It was finally resolved, ( 1 ) "That from 
considerations, which we need not specify and cannot control, 
we deem it inexpedient to enter into an interchange of corre- 
sponding messengers wdth the Convention ; i'^' but (2) that the 



15. Section ,55 of Convention Minutes of General Ass'n of Virginia, 
preserved in Airginia Baptist Historical Collection, Richmond, \'a. 

16. Section 80 of Convention Minutes of Ass'n of \'irginia, pre- 
served in Virginia Baptist Historical Society Collection, Richmond, 
Va. 



112 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

President of the Association be requested to address a letter to 
the Convention, assuring them of our friendly regards, our 
hearty sympathy in their work, and our readiness to co-operate 
with them, so far as circumstances may permit, and that the 
clerk of this body be directed to forward to the Secretary of 
the Convention fifty copies of our minutes." Concerning mat- 
ters which threatened to lead to social equality the whites were 
naturally very anxious at this particular time, but in matters 
strictly religious these men certainly had hearts filled with in- 
terest for the Negroes' betterment. That the refusal to inter- 
change corresponding messengers was based wholly on the fear 
of such an innovation leading to social equality, we can gather 
from an article published in the September 7th, 1871, issue of 
the Richmond Religious Herald of which Dr. Jeter w^as editor. 
He writes : "God has made the two races widely different ; not 
only in complexion, but in their instincts and social qualities. 
We take it for granted that it was not the purpose of the Cre- 
ator that they should be blended. Nature abhors the union. 
. . . . Religious and social intercourse are closely if not in- 
separably connected. Suppose we admit colored delegates to 
seats in our Association, we must, of course, allow them to sit 
wdiere they choose, in juxtaposition with our wives and daugh- 
ters, and the privilege granted to them must be equally granted 
to their associates. But if we invite colored delegates to seats 
in our religious bodies, we must invite them to share in our hos- 
pitality. We must maintain our consistency, receive them to our 
tables, our parlors, and our chambers, and the hospitality ex- 
tended to them, must be granted to their wives, daughters and 
associates." The President of the Virginia Baptist State Con- 
vention expressed quite philosophically his disapprobation of 
such reasoning and then concluded with a touch of humor in 
the last sentence : "This Convention will not mourn at the non- 
interchange, nor slacken her progress but will move on trusting 
in that God who has no respect of persons. So far, she has 
proven herself to be void of prejudice, of colorphobia, of caste, 
of lines of demarkation on account of nativity, nationality, 
tongue, tribe or kindred." ^"^ In 1879 when political matters 



17. See Minutes Va. Baptist State Convention 1872, p. 26. 



REUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 113 

were again nearer normal and IkiiIi rares liad come to a better 
understanding, we find the Christian love continning and the 
social equality bugbear fading into insignificance. 

The General Assembly of tlie Southern Presbyterian Church 
on November 15ih. ISf/i, discussed the relation of the freedmen 
of that church to its white members. There were warm dis- 
cussions throughout the South, some maintaining that there 
should be ecclesiastical equality in the matter of becoming dea- 
cons, ministers, etc.. and the other party in absolute opposition 
to such a course. The dread of miscegenation was made evi- 
dent during the argument over this ecclesiastical matter.^'* 

In 1866 at the first general conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, which met at New Orleans, La., the Ne- 
groes were granted the privilege of organizing into separate con- 
gregations, having their own preachers, etc. Undoubtedly, all 
of the Southern churches were interested in the spiritual wel- 
fare of the Negro, but they were somewhat bewildered to know 
just what was best to do. While the Southern churches were 
hesitating because of the lack of men and money the Northern 
churches little disturbed by the war were very active. 

That the South should ha\e been considered a legitimate field 
for missionary efifort after the war need occasion no surprise. 
The work done by the Abolition societies and the influence of 
biased writings had badly misrepresented the religious condi- 
tions south of the Mason and Dixon line. Conscientious men 
and women from the North were ready at the close of warfare 
to gird on their Christian armor and go iiUo the far country and 
struggle as did the Crusaders of old. They did struggle faith- 
fully, in the face of tremendous odds. 'J'he full length portrait 
of the Northern missionary has never yet been faithfully painted. 
Southerners omit the Bible in his hand and depict only the ideas 
of social equality in his heart ; Northerners show him as an angel 
in the midst of devils and forget his human attributes. Neither 
section now doubts his indiscretions ; neither now impugns his 
motives. One section finds too much to condemn ; the other sees 
only too much to praise. In the near future his work will be 



18. Am. Annual Cyclopedia. 1866, p. 625. 
—8 



114 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

fairly evaluated and then the Negro will realize that the North- 
ern whites and the Southern whites aided in forwarding the 
laudable religious amelioration of the Negro race in this Com- 
monwealth. With much outside aid and with the Negroes help- 
ing themselves is it any wonder that they improved? Besides 
the work undertaken by the American Missionary Association 
and the Society of friends, which we have mentioned above, the 
Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the 
Board of the Presbyterian Church North which put forth its 
"declaration in favor of special efforts in behalf of the lately 
emancipated African race" in 1865, and was later incorporated 
as "The Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen of the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America," the ]\Iis- 
sion Boards of the Protestant Episcopal and Baptist Churches — 
all of these were active in evangelizing the Negroes and spent 
large sums of money to effect this noble purpose.^^ Their mo- 
tives were e>xel]ent but their manner of doing the work was cer- 
tainly open to criticism. Their work co-ordinated in few places 
with work already done by the whites and it need cause no sur- 
prise that before many years had passed most of them had folded 
their tents and had gone to other fields of service. Alany mis- 
sionaries were astounded at the religious knowledge which some 
Negroes possessed. Indeed when the facts are carefully weighed 
it will then be known that the Northern missionaries did not 
erect a character structure de novo but built a showy super- 
structure upon foundations well-laid before the war. One 
planted and another reaped. It was not so much the type of 
religious teaching as their attitude toward the Negro socially 
that threw the work of Northern missionaries out of joint with 
previous religious efforts. In spite of pertness and flippancy, 
too often inculcated with religious instruction, the whole in- 
fluence of the Northern missionaries was highly beneficial to 
the religious life of the Negro. 

One of the foremost educational institutions which the North- 
ern Missionary Boards founded has become a worthy work 
which is inspiring to better life and abler service many whose 
lives would not otherwise be influenced by the Christian religion. 
This institution is now called the Virginia Union University. 



19. Missionary Review of the World, 37:6G0-r)fi. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 115 

In 1865, the Anioricaii llaplist I Ionic Mission vSocicly llinnigli 
Dr. J. C. I)inney opened the Riclimond 'rheolof^ical School for 
Freedmen. In 1867, this school was reopened in i.nnipkin's 
Jail by Dr. Nathaniel Colver and called Colver Institute. In 
1868. Dr. C. H. Corey, an educator and a man of great con- 
structive ability, took charge. In 1876, the school was incor- 
porated as The Kiclimond Institute and in 1886 its name was 
changed to Riclimond Theological Seminary. .A union of the 
Richmond Theological Seminary of Richmond, \'a.. and Way- 
land Seminary of Washington, D. C. in 1899 resulted in the 
\'irginia Union University now located in beautiful stone build- 
ings on spacious grounds in tlie suburbs of Richmond. The 
income of \'irginia L'nion is dcrixcd from the interest on the 
$83,000 endowment and contributions of the American Baptist 
Home ^Mission Society. The alumni of this institution have 
done much to redeem the Negro ministry of this state from 
ignorance. The preachers which they have graduated are usu- 
ally leaders and have the respect of the commiuiities in which 
they live. 

The three departments of the University arc : a College of 
Liberal Arts : a Theological Seminary ; and an Academy with 
]\Ianual Training. We shall be concerned only with the The- 
ological Seminary. The requirements for admission for can- 
didates for the degrees of Bachelor of Dixinity are graduation 
from an approved college or equivalent work, or graduation 
from an academy, extraordinary ability and extra work assigned 
by the Facultv. Two years of Greek is prerequisite to the R. D. 
course, and a thesis is required from each candidate before the 
degree is conferred. These are the courses offered. 

Original Language Course, 
first year. 
First Term. Second Term. 

Biblical Introduction 
Hebrew Language 
Greek Language 

Elocution and Speaking The same except Greek Inter- 

Vocal Music pretation is offered instead of 

Sacred Rhetoric Greek Language. 



116 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

SECOND YEAR. 

First Term. Second Term. 
Church History The same except Greek Inter- 
Hebrew Interpretation pretation is offered instead of 
Homiletics Hebrew Interpretation and 
Elocution and Speaking Church PoHty is added to 
Vocal Music Homiletics. 
Sacred Rhetoric 

THIRD YEAR. 

First Term. Second Term. 

Christian Ethics The same except Pastorial Du- 

Christian Theology ties are offered instead of 

Life and Teaching of Jesus Christian Ethics and Electives 

Elocution and Speaking instead of Life and Teaching 

Sacred Rhetoric of Jesus. 

The English course in the Theological Seminary, as its name 
indicates, omits the Greek and Hebrew and replaces them with 
Principles of Interpretation and the Interpretations of the Gos- 
pels, Acts, the Epistles, Poets and Prophets, and Revelation. 

A Special Course is given for those unable to gain admission 
to the regular Theological Courses and would undoubtedly do 
great good if more of the actively engaged but poorly prepared 
ministers would take advantage of it. 

Virginians have good reason to take a greater interest in an 
institution that has done so much for the welfare of a portion of 
the citizens of this Commonwealth. Some of the faculty are 
white and others colored. Able men are in its faculty, and high 
ideals are inculcated under the Presidency of Dr. George Rice 
Hovey, a white gentleman of scholarly attainments and good 
judgment. 

The Bishop Payne Divinity School had its beginning in 1878 
because of the necessity of training Negroes to do religious work 
among Negroes. In 1884 the State Legislature incorporated it 
as an institution "for the purpose of educating colored persons 
for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church." The 
School is located in Petersburg, Va., has four full Professors and 
a Principal, is the recognized Theological School of the General 



RELIGIOUS DF.VKl.OPMIvNT Ol' TIIK NI-CKo 117 

Church for oducatriifj Negro candidates for the ministry, and 
is suiiported hy the General I'oard of Missions, tlie American 
Church Institute for Negroes, and the contributions of friends. 
One member of the faculty, the warden, who is also professor of 
Latin, Greek. Philosophy. History and English, is a Negro; the 
others are white. Two courses are offered : one for Deacon's 
Orders and the other for Priest's Orders. The first course in- 
cludes Biblical Study. Hebrew and Greek, Prayer Book, The- 
ologA', Church History. English Language and Church Polity. 
The second course, for Priest's Orders, has prerequisite academic 
examinations. The studies in this course are : .Apologetics, Ex- 
egetical Theology. Doctrinal Theology, Pastorial Theology, The 
English P.ible. the Prayer Book and Christian Ethics. Most of 
these last-named courses run through three years and lead to 
the P). D. degree. The standing of this school is a credit to the 
well-known scholarshij) of the white Episcopal ministry. Nat- 
urally, the enrollment is small, but the students are xery- diligent 
while in the school and are eminently qualified to lead their race 
when they leave it. 

The other prominent Negro theological institution in this State 
is the Mrginia Theological Seminary and College located at 
Lynchburg, \'a. In May, 1887, the \'irginia Seminary, as it was 
first called, was founded by the \'irginia Baptist State Conven- 
tion (Negro) and in 1888 it was incorporated. In 18W. the 
charter was so changed as to add Theological and College Courses. 
It was at this time that the institution assumed its present name. 
The colored Baptists of A'irginia, Maryland, District of Columbia. 
Pennsylvania, New England Convention, New York Convention, 
and New Jersey Convention suj^ported the work and have en- 
dorsed it as their special educational work. The degrees offered 
in the Theological Department are Bachelor of Divinity and 
Bachelor of Theology with the distinction that the second course 
is without Greek and Hebrew. The three year courses are well 
filled with work. 

This institution is now a school "of the Negroes, by the Ne- 
groes and for the Negroes." Its alumni have done meritorious 
serv'ice in the ministry and have reflected credit on their ah)ia 
mater. The fact that its faculty is made up of Negroes entirely 
is very interesting. Is the time ripe for Negroes to assume con- 



118 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

trol of the education of their own race, or has the white man 
work to do yet in aiding this racial uplift? Virginia Theological 
Seminary and College has answered the cjuestion in one way, 
and Virginia Union University and Hampton have answered it 
in the other. 

We shall merely mention a few of the splendid non-theological 
institutions that are doing much for the welfare of the Negroes 
in A'irginia. The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute 
is perhaps the most distinguished Negro school in America. It 
was opened in 1868 under the auspices of the American Mission- 
ary Association with General Samuel C. Armstrong in charge. 
In 1870 it was chartered and became independent of the Mis- 
sionary Association. It is now inter-denominational and is do- 
ing the practical work for its students that makes them love 
truth and order and makes them hate hypocrisy and lawlessness. 
The Hampton graduate has an abundant incentive to live well. 
Dr. Hollis B. Frissell, a white man, and one of the really able 
students of the Negro question, is principal, and his faculty, in- 
structors and officers are whites, Negroes or Indians. Bible in- 
struction is included in the catalogued courses and other re- 
ligious touches are given by the faculty teaching Bible classes, 
the influence of orderly prayer meetings, daily evening prayers, 
the active college Y. M. C. A., and the active King's Daughters. 
About ninety-five per cent of the students are professing Chris- 
tians and these create a sentiment for a more intelligent Negro 
ministry wherever they settle. 

The Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute situated at 
Petersburg, Va., is open to both sexes. It was founded by Act 
of the General Assembly of Virginia in 1882. A Y. M. C. A. and 
a Y. W. C. A. are in the Institute, as well as a large temperance 
society to which most of the students belong. All students are 
expected to attend the religious services of their choice on Sun- 
day mornings in Petersburg. This State institution has done 
much to put well-equipped Negro teachers throughout Virginia 
and these carr\', among other things, elevated religious ideals 
which they imbibed during their period of study. 

TTartshorn Memorial College had its beginning in the Ebenezer 
Ba])tist Chuch, Richmond, Va., in 1883. In 1884, it was chartered 
by the Legislature. It is now well situated on West Leigh Street, 



REUcious i)Kvi:i,()I'.\ii:nt of thiv nicgko 119 

ill the same city, and is an institution founded for women only. 
That its aim was thurouij^hly Christian can be judjj^ed from the 
memorial inscription of its founder. Joseph C. I larlshorn. and 
also from a statement of its aim, as expressed in a cataloL,nic of 
1883-84: "It comes into existence with the single purpose of 
raising up a body of thoroughly educated Christian women as 
consecrated workers in the harvest field of the world. The homes, 
the churches, the Sunday-schools, the public schools, the mission 
lields of the Fatherland now open, are calling for cultivated 
Christian womanhood." 

The St. Paul Normal and Industrial School was founded by a 
Negro Episcopal clergyman. Rev. James S. Russell. It is lo- 
cated in the heart of the "■Ulack Belt" of X'irginia and liad its 
start in a little two story liuilding. in which Mr. Russell held a 
small school in 1883. In 1888 a Normal Department was added 
and since then this small beginning has grown to be a splendid 
institution with at least twenty-eight buildings, well-equipped, 
and doing a magnificent service in the training of Negroes, just 
where they need it most. This institution is commended bv the 
General Episcopal Convention "to the thoughtful consideration 
and substantial aid of all Churchmen who desire that the 'Colored 
youth of the South' may be trained in the principles of educa- 
tion, industry and religion." The school is a credit to its founder 
as well as to those upon whom it has leaned for support. 

No man can possibly estimate the good which these foregoing 
institutions have done for the Negro race in Mrginia. Not only 
in the theological schools but also in the others the Bible is 
taught. The principles of religion which are inculcated in these 
schools are sane and sound and unemotional. It is the desire of 
the faculties of most of these schools not only to train their stu- 
dents in the three R's reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also 
in the three H's, head, hand, and heart. Their conception of 
the education of the Negro does not stoj) with the mind, but goes 
on to the body and spirit. The educated Negro is desirous not 
only to know something and do something, but more important 
still, he is filled with a desire to be something for the uplift of 
his less fortunate brothers. If we converse with prison officials, 
we find that the educated Negroes stay out of trouble ; if we con- 
verse with doctors, we find that the educated Negroes take the 



120 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

best care of their bodies ; if we converse with ministers, white 
or black, we soon discover that the educated Negroes are neces- 
sary to the rehgious racial evolution. The main evils which 
have afflicted the race have been bred in an atmosphere of illit- 
eracy, ignorance, prejudice and superstition, and to these things 
the educated Negro is usually unalterably opposed. "The rudi- 
ments of an education for all, industrial training for many and 
a college course for the talented few" is the policy which will 
eventually drive away many spectres of racial discord. Some 
thoughtless persons decry the educated Negro, but he is really 
indispensable for peace, good order and progress. The educated 
Negro does not expect to break down racial distinctions ; he only 
attacks racial discrimination. On all sides, the educated Ne- 
groes are saying, "We do not want to be white men, but we do 
want the justice and protection which are due us as human be- 
ings and American citizens." 

According to the Directory of 1866 there were two African 
Baptist Churches, two African Episcopal Churches and one Afri- 
can Methodist Church in Richmond.^o By 1869 there were six 
African Baptist Churches, one African Methodist Church and 
one African Episcopal Church.^i In this latter year Rev. John 
Jasper is shown as pastor of the African Baptist situated on 
fourth and Canal Streets. At Norfolk, the Directory of 1867 
shows two African Baptist Churches, one African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, one African Methodist Protestant Church and 
the St. James Methodist Episcopal Chapel.^^ It will be noted 
that for the first two years after the war little progress was 
shown in organizing churches compared with what was to follow. 
The stir incidental to unsettled conditions, the trials of money- 
making, and the natural division of opinions at such a time 
caused building energies to be temporarily held in check. When 
these energies were released, churches sprang up all over the 
land and such churches were distinctively Negro churches. 
There are two periods of the church building and buying activi- 
ties. The first period began within a reasonably short time after 



20. Richmond Directory 18G6, pp. 122, 123. 

21. Ibid 18C.'.), p. 26. 

22. Norfolk City Business Directory. 



KI'.l.lGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 121 

the war ended and is characterized hy a desire to erect huildinj^s. 
This yearning to hnild developed into something similar to a 
nervous frenzy. When these churches hegan to l)e huilt ihey 
sprang up like mushrooms. A trip througli the prinri]ial cities 
of \'irginia would lia\e shown a transformation in the matter 
of temples of worship for Xegroes that might ha\c made the 
fable of Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp seem plausible. Religious 
zeal, pride, a desire to outdo each other, a desire to show the 
whites what they could do, are some of the factors which in- 
fluenced these activities. A ministry to match the period existed. 
The preacher was a mighty builder and led his people to see 
visions of the projects ahead of them. He pleased the big audi- 
ences of cmanci]ialed Macks that rushed to the cities and was 
generally an adc])! at the game of church politics. Frequently 
his morals were not good, but he certainly did build church.es. 

The second period was that of the payment of debts incurred 
in building the churches. These obligations were hanging over 
many buildings and the Negroes certainly did not want their 
property sold because of foreclosed mortgages. They made her- 
culean efforts to pay for their churches and had great rejoicing 
when no more debts remained. The Negro churches of X'irginia 
have surprisingly few debts now and always will have compar- 
atively few long-standing debts so long as the race continues the 
great sacrifices which they now make. Judging by the silence 
maintained by some Negro w^riters concerning one phase of the 
Negro's church life, we might be led to believe that someone had 
urged that the thousands given by the whites of the South for 
Negro churches should be kept a profound secret. Money giv- 
ing to their churches is one form of Christian activity in which 
the whites are anxiously urged by the blacks to take a part. No 
man can estimate just how much has been given to the Negroes 
to help them build. Many of the whites regard the church build- 
ing cards which the Negroes hand one as nuisances, yet they pay 
toll amid the •'Thank you, sir's," "Thank you's," and "God bless 
you's" of the recii)ient. The type of pastor for this period was 
a manager and a money getter. He knew business and generally 
was a calmer man than the builder type. He was usually a much 
greater man intellectually and morally. 

From the very fact of their tremendous numbers we shall be 



122 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

unable to trace the individual histories of the Negro churches, 
but we shall endeavor to state some of the considerations that 
made the Negro do as he did and some of them that made the 
white man think his own way. It was inevitable that the Ne- 
gro should wish to worship separately from the whites after the 
war, and as the natural consequence, a withdrawal from the 
white ecclesiastical organizations was in order. Purely Negro 
religious communions like the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion and the Afri- 
can Baptists gathered to themselves the great hordes of blacks. 
The Negro was never more anxious for independence than he 
was in the matter of desiring a church existence absolutely free 
from white control, oversight, or influence. The reasons for 
desiring this independence are not difficult to discern. Soon 
after the cessation of hostilities and while the future was still 
in doubt the whites were very much alarmed on account of a 
threatened social upheaval. The National government by 
amendments to the Constitution, and by the act of March 2, 
1867, was attempting to guarantee the Negro civil and political 
equality. The dread was always present in the South that civil 
and political equality were but stepping-stones to social equality. 
This dread affected the racial relationships to such an extent that 
the Negro did not feel as comfortable in the white churches as 
he had felt formerly. 

The Negroes who continued to worship in white churches were 
confined to certain pews or gallery benches after the War, just 
as they were before the first shot had been fired. This was re- 
pellent to the Negro because it seemed a confession of inferiority 
to sit in separate places, and further, those seats reminded them 
of the days of slavery.-^ In this unsettled period, strenuous ef- 
forts were being made by some to forget that there had ever been 
such a thing as slavery, or social distinctions. The Union Leagues 
and the influence of some of the Negro leaders made it next to 
impossible for even a highly respected ante-bellum slave to re- 
tain his membership in a white congregation. The taunts of the 
women were especially disconcerting. We must remember, too. 
that the Negro is naturally gregarious and joined with the 



23. P. A. Bruce, The Plantation Negro as a Freedman, p. 106. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT ol' THE NEGRO 123 

crowd. It re(|nire<l a discriminating courage to stand for the- 
ological tenets in the face of contumch- and ostracism. .\ few 
brave ones, lio\\e\er, would not he intimiihUed, hut tlie \ast ma- 
jority were mindful of the pressure brought to bear, and joined 
tlie strictly Xegro churches, or the Xorthcni branches uf the 
white ecclesiastical organizations. 

Bishop Atticus G. Haygood suggested another reason when 
he said : "Tongues and ears were made for each other : in each 
race both its tongues and its ears have characteristics of their 
own. No other tongue can speak to the Negro's ear like a Ne- 
gro's tongue." ~* The white ministers made efforts to proclaim 
the message to the l)lacks so that it would do the greatest good, 
but a gulf seemed to have been fixed between the speaker and 
the hearers, and there was no opportunity for the perfect ])er- 
sonal appeal. The Negro preacher, however imperfect, could 
speak to them out of their own experiences ; his psychological 
development was more like theirs ; his message could be easily 
interpreted by them ; he rarely, if ever, rose above the level of 
their intelligence. Their own preachers were far more con- 
genial to their tastes, and their theological ideas far more plausi- 
ble to the blacks than anything the whites could offer them. 

But the strongest reason of all, perhaps, for separate worship 
was the fact that religious exercises in the white churches were 
restrained and gave little ojiportunity for the "happy" worship- 
pers to give vent to their feelings. Without some cla]:)ping of 
hands, stamping of feet, shaking of heads, shouting, falling out, 
etc., the service would have seemed rather flat to the enthusias- 
tic Negro believers of those days. In the l)ig meeting 
times at the Negro churches wdien emotionalism was 
manifest at its worst, we are told that frequently the Negro 
women would stop falling out because no one would catch them, 
and if one did fall, the black exhorter, wildly excited and ]iro- 
fusely perspiring, has been heard to send his commanding voice 
ringing through the house, filled almost to suffocation with emo- 
tional worshippers : "God drott'er, doan touch 'er. Let'er stay 
wlifir de Lord flung 'er." All of this seems crude enough to us 
at the present day in comparison with the quiet, well-behaved 



24. Atticus G. Haygood, "Our Brother in Black," p. 222. 



124 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

Negro audiences which meet every Sunday in some of the more 
advanced churches of our \'irginia cities. Yet we must remem- 
ber that the time when most of this wild emotionaHsm was man- 
ifested was near the release from slavery and before the self- 
control incident to education had been given an opportunity. It 
is only fair and just to say that such wildly emotional scenes 
are still, very frequently enacted in the country churches, and 
we have been in attendance when such abandon was seen in 
city churches, not longer ago than the first part of 1914. It is 
certain that this desire to give unlimited vent to their feelings 
was a very prominent factor in leading to the ecclesiastical sep- 
aration of the races. 

Another reason for an ecclesiastical separation is to be found 
in the somewhat different conception of the uses of a church 
building. Many white churches are utilized for regular worship 
only. The Negroes utilized their churches for social centres, as 
well as for ordinary worship ; and widely varied are the uses to 
which their churches are put. The Negro church was the natural 
meeting place of Negroes. Their training all through slavery 
had taught them that meetings elsewhere were forbidden. The 
preaching services, Sunday-schools, prayer meetings. Christian 
Endeavor Societies, Baptist Young People's Union and kindred 
societies such as Buds, Sunshine Circles, etc., make up only a 
small part of a week's program in an ordinary Negro church. 
The socials, festivals, debates, lectures, entertainments, oyster 
suppers, ice cream sales, stereopticon views and occasional po- 
litical meetings still by no means exhaust the list of attractions 
housed in the Negro church, but merely suggest some of the 
possibilities. It has been said : "The social life of the Negro 
centres in his church — baptism, wedding and burial, gossip and 
courtship, friendship and intrigue— all lie in these walls. What 
wonder that this central club house tends to become more and 
more luxuriously furnished, costly in ap])ointment and easy of 
access," -^ and again, "The Negro Church of today is the social 
centre of Negro life in the United States, and the most charac- 
teristic expression of African character." -'"' Booker Washing- 



25. The Philadelphia Negro, W. E. B. Du Bois, p. 205. 

26. The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois, p. 193. 



REUGIOUS DKVELOPMKNT OF TIIK NEGRO 125 

ton said: "It is the core, the heart, the centre of organization 
in our social affairs and under the whig of the Church social 
fife is apt to be more refined and wholesome than under any 
other auspices." -" There is reason now for the Xegroes to 
give themselves pause concerning the over-development of the 
social features. The fundamental purpose of a church as a house 
of worship and a place for Christian instruction and fellowshi]) 
is sometimes almost lost sight of in this social age and it is per- 
haps undeniable that among the Negroes, "the numerous church 
socials, the multitudinous societies, the prominence given to cer- 
tain rites and ceremonies, fill the life of the average church 
member to a dangerous extent." -^ Of late, the better educated 
ministers are insisting that the churches be used for strictly re- 
ligious purposes and committees of censorship pass on the at- 
tractions offered, and in one instance at least, which came within 
our knowledge, cut short an entertainment that did not live u]) 
to its advertising. It is needless to show further that this dif- 
ference in the conception of the uses of a church building must 
have been one of the factors which, of necessity, led to a separa- 
tion soon after the war. when the differences of opinion between 
the races were more pronounced than at present. 

The accessions to these churches were very rapid. The 
preaching was of a type calculated to add numbers rather than to 
carrv deep convictions. The church l)ecame a central bureau of 
information and matters were frequently discussed into the "wee 
sma' " hours of the morning. A'ery frequently politicians would 
ingratiate themselves with the Xegro preacher and the Xegro 
vote would be deflected at his will. In certain precincts so much 
money would be paid for so many votes and the preacher was 
forced to deliver them or lose his reward. The crime of voting 
with the former masters was considered so reprehensible as to 
cause some good old colored men to lose caste with their fel- 
lows and to endanger their church membership. How strong the 
influence of the preachers was before the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1901 -'02. is represented by some interesting facts con- 
cerning an election for State Senators from the city of Rich- 



27. Missionary Review of tlie W'orkl. 27:835. 

28. Negro Life in the Snutli. \V. D. Weatherford, p. 145. 



126 REUGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

mond. Gen. Bradley T. Johnson and William E. Tanner, Esq., 
were Democratic candidates and no Republican candidates were 
named. Just before the election Messrs. Knig-ht and Starke 
came out as independent candidates and were evidently depend- 
ent upon the Negro vote. Gen. Johnson had organized several 
strong "Johnson" clubs among the Negroes and had their vote 
pledged, but he was doomed to disappointment. On the Sunday 
night before the election every Negro pastor in town stated that 
the Negroes were expected to vote for Knight and Starke, and 
in the evidence turned in at a contested election inquiry, it was 
found that not a single Negro vote had been cast for the Demo- 
cratic candidates. At one precinct where Johnson had eighty- 
five pledged voters, each one of them when examined as wit- 
nesses testified that his vote was cast for Knight and Starke. 
Johnson and Tanner won, however, without the Negro vote.-^ 
Similar incidents could be enumerated but the influence of the 
Negro churches on the political situation is too well-known to 
need further elaboration. A very ingenious view-point con- 
cerning religion and politics was suggested by Lewis H. Blair 
about 1889 who claimed that the South Carolina and Georgia 
Negroes had no desire to vote because they were so other- 
worldly or spiritualized as to think that Heaven was their home, 
hence they did not disturb themselves over conditions here ; while 
the Virginia Negroes, under the influence of Mahone, had been 
urged to cast their ballots and take an active part in the world's 
present happenings. ^'^ 

A later development has proved that in the event of very close 
elections, both sides in a bitter contest will l)id for the Negro 
vote. It is not a secret that the votes of the Negroes are es- 
pecially valued in "wet" and "dry" elections.^! We have been 



29. See History of \'irginia State Debt Controversy, Wm. L. Roy- 
all, pp. 38-'9. 

30. The Prosperity of the South Depciulent upon the Elevation of 
the Negro. Lewis H. Blair, p. 73 fi. 

31. While in Slavery the Negroes were protected from the evils 
of intemperance by legislation and by their masters — except at Christ- 
mas. Temperance Committees brought in strong reports certainly 
as early as 1870 in the A. M. E. and Baptist Conventions. See Afri- 
can Methodism in Virginia, J. L. Butt, p. 4.'?; Baptist Convention Min- 
utes of 1871, p. 20. 



RELIGIOUS DKVKLOI'.Mi:nT ol" Tlllv NKC.Ko 127 

assured that one election which hing^ed on these votes was turned 
to the victorious side hecausc ])roniincnt Xcp^roes were not taken 
into pre-election caucuses held by leaders on the losinsf side. At 
Norfolk, in the Xoveniber. 1913, elections, it was well known that 
the unprecedented switching: of the 1 luntersville Nep^ro vote from 
the machine, or "Ring." to the good government forces, or Cit- 
izens Party, was almost entirely ascrilnd lo the inllucnce of a 
very remarkable and prominent Xegro j^reacher, Rev. C. S. 
Morris.-'- Fortunatel\. the iiilluence of ignorant Xegro preach- 
ers in ]-)olitical situations where they could issue fiats and have 
them heedlessly obeyed was curtailed by the Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1901 -'02. but no check ever will be placed upon an 
intelligent, large-hearted Negro religious leader who wisely coun- 
sels the educated, best elements of his race. The Negro preacher 
is still a political leader l)ui he is a saner, wiser leader than the 
men of the seventies and eighties because he is as a man usually 
saner and wiser and better than the man of that day. Me is no 
longer entrusted with such unlimited privileges as formerly, but 
he is more honored l)y being a leader of the worthy men of his 
race who think and know, than he ever w^as, who blind himself. 
led voters blind and bigoted and ignorant. 

The Xegro Church is a highly complex organization. There 
are many societies in each, and the General Convention reports 
show not only the multiplicity of interests but the zeal in for- 
warding the same. The Minutes of every session of the General 
Conventions of the African Baptist Churches and the African 
Methodist Episcopal Churches, with the exception of the first 
three of the Baptist Churches, are on my desk, and the excellent 
sentiments and high motives there exhibited would be a matter 
of pride to all Virginians were they well known. It is insane 
to doubt the ability of many of the men who were leading factors 
in these organizations. That many bad men were sometimes 
prominent, no one can doubt who reads these Minutes, but the 
general average of the intelligence of the leaders and their gen- 
eral worthy lives are causes of very favorable comment. Xot 
only were missionaries paid by the Xegroes to work in this State 
but others were paid who went to Africa. Temperance com- 



32. The Norfolk Landmark and \irginian-Pilot. Nov. 5, 1913. 



128 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

mittees, Sunday-school committees, Home Mission and Foreign 
Mission committees and many others prove that the organiza- 
tions were quite intricate. We shah enumerate only a few of 
the societies reported and taken into the membership of one of 
the State Conventions : Sisters of Charity, Young Sons of Lib- 
erty, Loving Sisters of Worship, Zion Travellers, Phoenix, 
Young Sisters of Love and Consolation, Sisters of Temperance, 
Daughters of Zion, Loving Daughters of Gethsemane, Sisters of 
Esther, Female Soldiers of the Cross, Female Star of Jacob. 
United Daughters of Ham, Loving Sisters of the Morning Star, 
Daughters of LTseful Society, Young Rising Daughters of Golden 
Rule, Sons and Daughters of IVIoses, Rising Daughters of Je- 
rusalem, Sisters of Canaan and Aged Sisters of Honor. All of 
these were religious benevolent societies and were very important 
factors in their Church. At this present day the fraternal or- 
ganizations are rapidly coming to the fore. It behooves the 
benevolent religious societies to look carefully to their laurels. 
There is no doubt but that the competition for supremacy in 
controlling the social life of the Negro is becoming keener and 
keener because of the multiplication of worthy organizations out- 
side of the church. The church is safe for the present but must 
build for the future to hold its young people. The bitter ex- 
periences of a few years ago when a prominent Negro fraternal 
organization became insolvent have sobered the Negroes on this 
subject, however, and they are now demanding better financial 
management and firmer moral security than formerly. 

A Negro is a joiner of the first degree; he is "jining" some- 
thing from his early days until his latest. This propensity could 
be turned to good account. No one doubts the value of the Ne- 
gro under proper, strict discipline. The meritorious services 
rendered by Negro soldiers in various wars would forever dis- 
prove any aspersions cast upon their ability while under strict 
leadership.-''^ It will be the problem of today and tomorrow to 
provide the discipline that will harness his religious emotionalism 
and get work done with the power that is now wasted. 

There is one fundamental consideration which must ])recede 
every discussion of the Negro, and that is a recognition of the 



33. Tlic American Neqro: His Past and Future. P. B. Barringer. 



RKLic.iors I i:vi:i.()|'mi:nt oi- iiii: mcko 129 

fact that Xeij[roes, like woiiK-u as (k'tiiuwl hv tlic Irishman, arc 
all alike in that all are ciitVerent. An ediKaled liennan of our 
acquaiiitanoe expressed surprise on his first trij) to America that 
we were able to distins;iiish iiuli\ iduals of the Negro race. Ivven 
in the Xorili w c ha\c heard learned mm express surprise that 
the Negroes of \'irginia should differ from the Negroes of 
Georgia or South Carolina or anywhere else. ]t would he im- 
possible for a real observer to fail to recognize a ditYerence in 
the personalities of individuals, and further, the aggregate dif- 
ference in personalities of the individuals of one State as com- 
pared with those of another. These differences exist. Even 
the Negro recognizes them."^ We have stated in a previous 
chapter the processes of selection which might account in part 
for many of the general excellencies of the \'irginia Negro, 
^lany, however, can see few or no excellencies in any Negroes. 
Dr. W. If. Ruft'ncr, Superintendent of the Public School of \'ir- 
ginia for 1874, said: "The Southern Negroes are polite, amia- 
ble. (|uiet, orderly and religious ; and hence it is hard to believe 
that as a class they are without character. .\nd yet such is the 
unhai)py fact. . . . And whilst families and congregations 
which have enjoyed special privileges exhibit better results, yet 
■with the masses of those who claim to be Christians, their piety 
is of an unintelligent, sometimes superstitious, and always spas- 
modic type, and it covers a multitude of sins." ^'^ Dr. P. B. 
Barringer says : "A young savage by instinct, he naturally takes 
as his ideal the swaggering bully of his own color. He gradu- 
ally, by theft and effort, gets up an eqm'pment — no longer the 
bow, club and spear of his forefathers — but now a cheap pistol, 
a pair of 'knucks' and a razor. He goes to his first 'festerval* 
and the 'progress of the rake' is henceforth fast. Some night 



34. Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aug. 28, 1904: "The chief theme of 
discussion yesterday by the colored Sunday-School workers of the 
Virginia Baptist State Convention (Negro) in session here, was class 
distinction among their own race. Rev. Paul Pollard of Richmond 
read a paper on 'Caste in Our Own Churches.' The sul)ject was 
discussed at length, the gist Iieing that a class line should he drawn 
between those colored people who had raised themselves above the 
ordinary level and those who still remained on the same low plain." 

35. Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. K. W. Blyden, p. 40. 



130 RiaUiTOUS DI;VIiLOPiMENT OF THE; NEGRO 

at a carousal he uses his ever handy weapon and flees, carrying 
witlT him everything of his parents' tliat he can steal. . . . By 
the time he is even fully grown, he is far from home and has 
almost forgotten the parents that gave him hirth ; he is a liar, 
a thief and a rake ; a gambler and perhaps a murderer or high- 
wayman. He fears neither God nor man, and when an oppor- 
tunity offers is ready for any crime. He is in his own vernacu- 
lar 'a bad man.' and for once he does not lie." ■•'' One Cjuotation 
from a Negro writer. Win. Hannibal Thomas, is now presented: 
''From my youth I have had an intimate knowledge of negro 
religionists, and have learned to know from personal experience 
the shallowness of their pretensions, the depravity of their 
morals, the ignorance of their ministers, the bigotry of their 

leaders, and the levity of their faith I have found 

the unlearned bigoted, the learned of the race pompons ; and 
all of every sort, pitifully indifferent to the welfare and uplifting 
of men and women sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. "^''' 
Every one of these opinions is true concerning a certain class 
of the Negro populace, but just there is where we do the better 
elements of the Negro race an injustice. Dr. Ruft'ner did differen- 
tiate somewhat. It is absurd to talk about Anglo-Saxons being 
scientific if we cannot distinguish between the .doings of crim- 
inals, slum Negroes and the worthy lives lived by many a well- 
behaved, aspiring, educated Negro. 

We watched the Negro workmen at the end of a day's work 
leaving the great Newport News Ship Building and Dry Dock 
plant; we stood on the wharves at Norfolk and saw the long- 
shoremen at their daily tasks ; we heard the ringing notes of 
the tobacco Negroes in the great factories at our State capital ; 
we have talked to the Negro tilling the soil of this Common- 
wealth, and in every instance there was a dift'erence.- The dif- 
ferences were not so great between those at the dift'erent tasks 
as the differences between those at the same tasks. There is 
great hope for some ; for others, the words of an untutored, 
burly, Irish machinist at Newport News are, unfortunately peril- 



36. The American Negro: His Past and Future, P. B. Barringer, 
p. 1«. 

37. The American Xegro, Wm. Hannihal Thomas, Preface, p. 21. 



ki-;li(;i( )rs i>i:\i:i.(ii'Mi;\ i' m' Tin-; .\i;(.u() \M 

ously near true: "An i-noranl. illinratc Xe^ro ain't worth a 
(I — n nowlKix'."' Ill- (lid at least (litVcrcntiatc. TIuti.- is little 
WDiidcr llial the Xej^ro is driven almost to desperation by the 
vieious attacks made upon the raee. which were reallv intended 
to he aimed at the hiwest elements in their race. The hetter 
Negroes are willins,-- to agree that the faults of their weaker 
brothers can hardly he condoned. I)ut the sad fact remains thai 
we sometimes by our carelessness indiscriminately weaken the 
hands of those same worthy ones who are laboring under the 
burden of racial woes. DitYcrentiation must be used; else we 
should refrain from calumny. The only generalization that is 
at all fair to make concerning Negroes as a race, is the generali- 
zation that we should not, without (|ualification, generalize. It 
would seem that in il)c jiresence of so many t\i)es of Negroes 
no person coirld fail to divide the Negroes as a race into fewer 
classes than five: 

In the City. 

(1) The law-abiding, educated, aspiring Negro. 

(2) The slum Negro with surroundings that fit him for crime. 

In the Country. 

(3) The industrious, quiet, hard-working farmer and land 

owner. 
('4) The thriftless "hand." without amI)ition. 

In Coal Mines. Saw Mills, Railroad Camps, etc. 
(5) The i)ul)lic works laborer with few religious advantages."'* 

As the Anglo-Saxon love of fair play is brought more prom- 
inently to our attention, we shall exercise an ever-increasing 
care that at least no innocent men shall suffer in the place of 
the guilty. 

One of the most momentous occurrences in tlie life of a Negro 
church is a split. Fortunate indeed is that church which has not 
suffered in this manner. In ilie tirst instance, money matters 
are frequently the root of this e\il. Careless accounting leads 
part of the congregation to think that money has been misap- 
propriated ( frequently it has been ) and the congregation is rent 



38. The Southern Workman, July. I'.MiT. p. :;•.)(). Also "Tiic 1-irst 
Century of the First Baptist Church," p. 204 ff. 



132 RICLIC.IOUS DEVKLOPMENT OF TIIE: NEGRO 

in twain. It is regrettable that preachers have so often been 
g-uilty of such peculations. Another occasion for a split in a 
Negro church is the immorality of the shepherd of the flock. 
In spite of the most convincing testimony, part of the congrega- 
tion will sometimes blindly cling to their pastor and refuse to 
force his resignation. The more moral elements among the 
Negroes, thoroughly disgusted, leave the old congregation and 
set up a new house of worship, frequently in a communitv where 
one well-conducted church would have been sufficient for all the 
religious needs of such a community. Another reason for splits 
in the churches is to be found in the personal magnetism of cer- 
tain individuals. A young man is told by some of the brothers 
and sisters that he can "put up" a better prayer than the regular 
pastor, or can preach a much better sermon. He chafes because 
his talents are not more quickly recognized and with a small 
following sets up his tabernacle at a little distance removed from 
the former church and begins his work. At other times an ill- 
equipped preacher will "refuse to acce])t his resignation when it 
is offered to him" and the more educated members will cut the 
Gordian knot by setting up a new work and calling a new 
preacher better suited to their attainments. The words "old 
site" and "new site" generally have behind them a history of 
difficulties in the churches which eventually let to splits. Even 
the great Virginia Baptist State Convention (Negro), several 
years ago, split into two parts that are now commonly referred 
to as the Association and the Convention. It is a matter of en- 
couragement to believe that this breach which seems to have been 
caused by personal ambition and a lack of cooperation, will soon 
be closed and harmony once more prevail among the Negro 
Baptists of Virginia. It is evident that independent churches 
with congregational forms of government are far more suscep- 
tible to such breaches than are the churches under the authority 
of the bishops or other ecclesiastical officers. 

An interesting remnant of slavery was preserved in the Ne- 
gro's disregard of property holding as being* opposed to their 
religion. During slavery the blacks were not encouraged in many 
instances to hold property, and in some instances they were pos- 
itively discouraged. The masters had endeavored to supply all 
the needful wants of the slaves. The Negro's religion was of 



RliUGIOUS l)i:vl-:U)l'Mi:.\T OF TIIH Nia.Ko 133 

such a nature that his ycaniin<,'s were far beyond the skies, ami 
since they chd not have weahh it became very easy to think that 
those who cHd were endantj^erini^ their chances for I feaven. In 
a very instructive investii^ation conducted by C. 11. Dyke in some 
of the Tidewater cities and rural districts, he found that the at- 
titude of the great majority of Nej^ro chiUlren could be ex- 
pressed, "God don't leek { hke) rick folks."-'" All oi this senti- 
ment, however, is rapidly dying out under the teachings of 
Hampton, Tuskeegee, and other i)rominent institutions. Booker 
Washington's great (luadrivium, "property, economy, education 
and Christian character" expresses the latest tendencies of Negro 
thought. Many believe that he should have placed Christian 
character tirst instead of last. I lis ])rogram and his books pre- 
sent economics as the chief means to the end. Religious reform, 
it would seem, is to be effected after economic stability has fur- 
nished a racial foundation. It is to be sincerely hoped that in 
these rushing times "the most influential organization among 
Negroes," the Negro Church, will carefully watch its wards and 
make impossible a subordination of character to economic pros- 
perity. 

No one can doubt the prominent place of finances in Negro 
church life. The Negro not only loves the Church with his heart 
but with his pocket-book. In the past no sacrifice was too great, 
nay, not even virtue itself, if it was undergone for the church. 
Rallies and special collections are never ceasing. To "lift a col- 
lection" well is considered quite an attainment. In the matter 
of church buildings the Negroes equal, if they do not surpass, 
the whites. Whereas some of the more expensive white churches 
in the city have no counterparts among the blacks, still the average 
Negro church in the country has a good building and is as well 
if not better fitted for services than the average white church 
situated in the country. To have accumulated millions of dollars 
worth of property and sjient thousands in salaries and mission- 
ary enterprises, required a sjjirit of generosity rarel}-, if ever, 
equalled by any people in the same financial conditions. This 
prominence of money in the life of the church is well exhibited 



39. Popular Science Monthly, C. R. Dyke. 60:3r)0-364. 



134 RELIGIOUS DEVELOP AIENT OF TIIE NEGRO 

in a statement of the functions of the Negro church as inter- 
preted hy Du Bois. He arranges them as follows: 

"1. The raising of the annual hudget. 

"2. The maintenance of membership. 

"3. Social intercourse and amusements. 

"4. The setting of moral standards. 

"5. Promotion of general intelligence. 

"6. Efforts for social betterment.'""*" 

There is much to deprecate concerning the lives of so-called 
religious Negroes. Would that ]:)rofession and performance 
could be brought nearer together. From the very iirst of this 
study nearly every man's comment on their religious pretensions 
have re-echoed the word "shallowness" like a constantly recurring 
refrain. It has been the fortune, or misfortune, of some people 
successfully to assume the virtue of godliness even if thev had 
it not, but the Negro is rarely allowed to begin an assumption. 
The whites do that by postulating something very close to hypoc- 
risy as a necessary condition of every religious Negro's life. 
That such a hypothesis is radically wrong is too evident to need 
statement, yet we tolerate these wrongs. Much of the Negro's 
religious life is spent in feeling, and far too little in doing. Many 
of them completely exhaust their religion in feeling. The ethical 
aspect of religion is only known to the upper tenth at present. 
Long, repetitious prayers, shoutings, 'zortations, church attend- 
ance and payment of dues, mark the extent of the influence of 
religion in the lives of a great many. His spirit is very devout 
*'so far as this signifies a passionate religious feeling in conira- 
distinction to sober and godly conduct ; as an abstract hope and 
naked aspiration, it colors his whole nature as much as his most 
impetuous appetites do." 

The divorcement of religion and morals is a most unfortunate 
condition which prevails far too extensively. Frequently sins 
are committed during, or immediately after, a religious service. 
An old Negro who testified in meeting that he had cursed some, 
had stolen some, iiad drunk whiskey some, and had done other 
things some, but could thank God that he had never lost his 
religion, is fairly characteristic of an attitude towards the rela- 



40. 'I'lu" I'hiladilphia Ncsro. W. K. R. Du Bois, p. ;?02. 



RELIGIOl'S l)i:\i:i.(tl'Ml \1" ol" Till; NKC.KO 135 

tiuiisliip hctwooii i\'liL;i(>n and morals held by smm' of the lowest 
and most deprav eil. An im-idciU of particular inurest is noted 
l)v ( )lmsted which shows ihe XeLjro's implicit trn^l in the llihle 
and fnrtlicr dcnionsirales that the .\e<Tro can at least cite Scrip- 
ture for his purposes. A white ininisler was endeavorinsj;' to 
correct a slave for wroni^-doing when the followinji^ dialoj^ue 
ensued: "Look yeah, niassa, don't de ScrijUure say dem who 
l)'h'e\es an' is baptize' shall be saved?" 

"Certainlv." was the repl\-, and the clerc^yman went on to 
exjilain the passai:[c to him, but the slaw interrupted him again: 

■'jus' you tell me now, massa, don't de good book say dese 
words: "nem as b'lives and is baptize' shall be saved'?" 

"Yes but—" 

''Dat's all 1 want to know, sar, now wat's de use of talkin' to 
me. \'ou ain't ago'n to make me l)'lie\e what de blessed Lord 
say ain't so. not if you tries forever." 

The lack of exalted practical ideas and worthy, inspiring ideals 
leaves the religion of the Negro woefully weak. Too often the 
popularity-loving pastor preaches down to his congregation. .V 
voung minister with excellent training and a fervent spirit starts 
out to proclaim the word in a manner in keeping with his educa- 
tion but soon finds his efforts are unappreciated by his congrega- 
tion because they prefer "whang-doodle" and "rousements" to 
cold religious logic and ethical teaching concerning sins. A very 
direct application of the Scriptures to ])revalent conditions will 
almost certainly throw a damper over the meeting. Such condi- 
tions have come within our knowledge and are particularly dis- 
couraging to those interested in the racial uplift. A wdiite man 
who is considered religious would in ninety-nine cases out of a 
hundred bear at least an excellent moral character, but to say 
that a Xegro is religious means nothing without knowledge of 
the individual. In other words he "needs to be taught that more 
of the religion that manifests itself in his hajjpincss in j)rayer- 
meeting should lie made practical in the ])erformance of his daily 
tasks." The breach between profession and i^erformance is 
really at the bottom of most of the Negro's religious problems. 
It is a pity that it is so. A people who are intensely, instinctively 
religious as are the Negroes, stand in some danger of disgusting 
the educated minority of their race with things religious because 



136 RELIGIOUS DKVKLOI'MENT OF TlIIv NEGRO 

of the prevalence of shadow rather than substance, of profes- 
sion rather than performance, of emotional externals rather than 
intelligent ethics. And this educated minority is an all important 
factor among Negroes since it furnishes the leaders to guide their 
less fortunate brothers out of the wilderness. None of the brain- 
iest Negroes claim that superstition has no hold on their race. 
They merely claim that it has no hold on the more educated part 
of the race, and they further maintain that it grips the rest of 
the race now with much less force than formerly. It is not to be 
expected that superstition would relinquish its hold very easily. 
It was firmly entrenched in the Negro's habits of thinking and a 
change in thought-life is part of a long process. Of course, it 
is an insult to the very principles of the Christian religion to be 
a Christian and at the same time be a believer in superstition. 
White men and black are both guilty of this, however. We whites 
dodge about too frec[uently like cowards, rather than begin an 
enterprise on Friday or have anything to do with the number 
thirteen. Have we rid ourselves of superstition yet? The Negro 
carries his rabbit's foot, crosses his fingers, steps with his right 
foot first over the door sill, believes in ghosts, hoodoo's, "con- 
jurs" others and is "conjured," etc., until it seems that he forgets 
that he is a Christian in a Christian land. The mere fact that 
"conjur" doctors live quite prosperously in several sections of 
our State would indicate that their business is still popular. In 
Louisa County a Negro was employed to fire a saw-mill engine, 
and in spite of his best eiTorts something went wrong with the 
boiler. He urged his employer to lend him $3.00 to go to Spott- 
sylvania County and get a "conjur" doctor to give him profes- 
sional advice as to the trouble. The doctor assured him that the 
engine was certainly tricked and nothing could be done until the 
boiler was thoroughly cleaned out and a mysterious powder in- 
serted before fresh water w-as poured in. Naturally the mill ran 
well at first, after the boiler was carefully cleaned, and great was 
the joy of the fireman, but his elation was very short-lived, since 
the mineral deposits in the water caused the same complications 
as formerly. Of course the Negro did not lose faith in the doc- 
tor. He blamed other things. Experience does not teach every- 
body. These happenings were not events of 1713 or 1S13, but 



RFXlC.ldfS l>i:\ I'l.dI'M i:\l" dl" Till': M-.i'.Kd 1.^7 

occurred in the early part of the Twentieth Centiin — in the 
year 1*^13. 

The superstitions connected with inanimate thinj^'s, however, 
are not nearly so iin|i(iilant as those connected with animate. 
The former are more numerous; the latter more conse(|Ucntial. 
It is a frii^htful trajj^edy for one Negro to trick another."*' 
The white man can hardly comprehend it. The manifestations 
are so distressing that the afflicted one is the object of universal 
pity, and medical science is baffled to minister tn minds diseased. 
The lizard is verA' frequently thought to be connected with a 
person tricked and is supposed to be living on the unfortunate's 
vitals. Old Dr. Buckner. a preacher and physician of some years 
ago, had a "conjured" Xegro patient and he un(loul)tcdly saved 
her life by using his hard common sense. It must be remembered 
that Negroes really die from sheer weakness after being tricked 
unless the evil force is removed or a counter spell can be wrought. 
After finding a lizard the good doctor put it in a box and con- 
cealed it on his person. He commanded that a wash-tub be half- 
hlled with water and placed in front of the patient who was 
given a strong emetic. When the vomiting began, the doctor 
told her to look for a lizard and when she was sickest he dropped 
the lizard into the tub. The sequel fouml his patient speedily 
convalescent. As valuable as human life is, it is a very sad 
thought to think that no inconsiderable number of lives are sac- 
rificed everv- year because of such base superstitions. Tt is high 
time that education should drive out this type of mental darkness. 

When the Negro was first brought to America he was so 
steeped in .superstition, and the process of teaching his simple 
mind was so difficult that it is not surprising to know that he 
clung to superstitions even while grasping after spiritual ideas. 
The constant eflforts of missionaries and good masters, at last, 
proved efficacious in making some few Christian ideals and ideas 
clear. It was a Christian veneer, at least. After being in .Amer- 
ica nearlv three hundred years the Negro is now thoroughly 
Christian in most particulars but still retains some of the heathen- 
ish ideas adapted to the new religion. •*- With such a religious 



41. The Plantation Negro as a Freedman, P. A. Bruce, pp. 111- 
125. 

42. Tlic Xegro Cluircli, p. 5. 



138 RELIGIOUS DE;vn:LOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

history and such a racial history the great majority of Negroes 
could not well he otherwise than spasmo(hc and emotional in 
their religious lives. 

It was not always a simple matter for the would-he convert 
to gain admission into the church. Experiences were very im- 
portant factors and these were weighed very carefully before the 
candidate was encouraged to think that he could enter the Ark 
of Salvation. These experiences were supposed to be soul travels 
and travails. A peep at old Satan was almost indispensable as 
a proof of genuine experience, and fortunate indeed were those 
who heard "sweet moanin's" or were "shuck" over Hell. To 
the present day these conditions prevail in some localities. Those 
who are having these soul trials are called "seekers." The 
"seeker" usually takes on a pitiful look, practically stops work, 
and "mopes about." Great interest is manifested in the "seek- 
ers" as they are the possible church members. There is rejoicing 
in the land wdien the "seeker" has "come through." His ex- 
periences are recounted with the greatest interest and all give 
strict attention to such a narrative. Whether they found their 
Jesus in the church, in the home, or as a little Negro of our ac- 
quaintance said, in the hen-house, makes no difference. The 
great item is whether they found him or not. 

Have you seen a Negro baptizing in the country? It is often 
a spectacle. The procession from the church to the picturesque 
mill-pond at baptizing times is well known. The whole con- 
gregation marches two abreast and often the candidates wear 
white caps. Sometimes a few are hard to manage in the water 
and frequently after immersion some will loudly proclaim that 
they saw their Jesus. In the cities, pools are in many of the 
churches and the baptizing takes place indoors. Usually the 
indoor ceremony is orderly and quiet and reflects great credit 
upon all the participants. 

It has never come within the experience of any of the many 
persons whom we have' conversed with concerning the religious 
l)ractices of Negroes, that a Negro was ever known to be so 
busy that he was not able to stop work long enough to shake 
hands with a new convert, and speak some words of encourage- 
ment. When the new convert has "got religion" he often goes 
about rocking his body and chanting these or similar words: 



Ri-:i.i(".i(>rs i)i;\'i;i.(M'Mi:.N r <u- 'iiii': ni-.i'.uo !•>'' 

"I am reilcenud. I am adeemed. And washed in Jesus l)l()od. 
I took mv feel mil nl' llie miry elay and set them on the Kuck 
of Aj^es where the wind may Mow and the storm may rise and 
llie very gales of Hell will not prevail, iliauk (".od." Tlie hand- 
shake is inevitahle. The .\e,t;ro delii,dils in it. No color line 
is drawn there: the white man, of slavery days especially, shook 
hands with the hlack man and hoped that he would live a no- 
hler life. The hlack man helieved at the lime thai he would, 
and we are con\inced that all would have j^^one well it the 
emotional excitant could have been kept ever operative, hut 
alas, we face facts, and not theories. The emotionalism which 
was sustaininjj for a season, no longer stimulated and many 
believe that "the last state of that man is worse than the first." 
F. C. Ruftin saitl: 'A\'ith exceptions, negn^-s are worse in 
character after thev 'profess conversion' than they were before. 
It is dreadful to think that Christianity, which has not only re- 
deemed but civilized all the nations of the earth that can claim 
to l)e civilized in any high sense, should he an injury to the 
negro; lliat llial 'Light which lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world' should he an ignis fatuus to him." ■'•'■ Such a 
radical view as that taken by Ruffin is certainly not representa- 
tive of the facts in the case. The Xegro does do wrong after 
conversion (as every one else does), but he is a malefactor 
not because of his religion, but in spite of it. lie knows belter 
in almost every instance, but the flesh is weak and the tempta- 
tions strong. Some of the more ignorant may consider their 
profession of religion a mere insurance ])olicy to keep them 
out of Hell, but most Negroes now think far differently. The 
triumphs of llie faith in changing the l)ad lives of many Ne- 
groes into better, are not among the least conse(|Ucntial vic- 
tories won by Christianity. 

Can we expect a bitter spring to give forth sweet waters? 
"Uo men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" Neither 
need we expect the Xegro race to make any r.ipid moral ad- 
vances until their domstic life has been improved. ( )ne of the 
most unfortunate influences of slavery was the failure to per- 

43. Tlic Xegro as a Political and Social Factor. Frank C. Ruttiii. 
p. 22. 



140 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

mit a full realization of the meaning of the family circle- 
Many of the best masters and mistresses were particular that 
families should be kept together and these were taught the 
principles of family life, but many others paid little attention 
to such things. As a rule the domestic virtues were undevel- 
oped among the Negroes, and as long as these conditions ex- 
isted or do exist the efforts to cut down the excessive immoral- 
ity will prove abortive. It is very noticable that the slaves 
from the "quarters" are usually morally inferior to those raised 
in the "great house." The Negro is imitative and the house 
servants could see high family relationships and could profit 
thereby ; the Negroes at the "quarters" experimented among 
themselves. The Negro masses have not yet learned the im- 
portance of the family as an institution, but they are rapidly 
being taught these lessons of higher life by their intelligent 
leaders. The painstaking observer will not fail to record that 
there are many new names added each year to the list of those 
who have a true conception of home life; and these additions 
are important in developing the family life, since it is recog- 
nized that "the only adequate measure of social efficiency and 
the only ultimate test of essential race progress lies in the ca- 
pacity to create the home." ^'^ Few whites know anything about 
these advances. The newspapers, the police court records, the 
tales of the idle devote much space and time to flaunting the 
criminal side of this race before the world, and rarely a word 
is found of encouragement or recognition of those struggling, 
worthy characters — home builders — who are doing their best 
to promote family ideals. It became our duty in writing this 
monograph to visit many homes of Negroes, and it was a rev- 
elation to know how neat and orderly were tlie appointments ; 
how well-kept were the surroundings ; how well-chosen were 
the books in the libraries- — of the better classes. The homes 
of the slum Negroes show a corresponding want of elevating 
factors. Of this latter class the summary of the characteris- 
tics of the Negro homes in America, as found in an Atlanta 
University Bulletin, •*^' is frequently — not always — true without 



44. The Present South, E. G. Murphy, pp. lGG-168. 

45. The Negro American Family, p. 48. 



Ki:i,i('.i(us i>i;\i:i.iii"Mi".\T oi" Tine nkc.ko 141 

qualifications: "(1) Kack of comfort; (2) Lack of hyc^iciiic 
customs; {^) Lack of thrift economy; (4) Lack of a fatlu-r; 
(5) Absence of a mother." Crowded rcjoms, poor luniilure. 
unsanitary arran^'ements, uucleanliness, rentin>,^ suh-lettinji^, 
spending: recklessly, surfeitin.i;^ today and starving; tomorrow, 
sexual promiscuity, illegitimacy, harsh treatmenl, undue pun- 
ishments, services of mother tired out at ni.<,dU. and a conse- 
(juent lack of maternal influence, ma]<e up an arra\ of ohsta- 
•cles which would be destructive of an\- white home, much less 
the home of the blacks. It is distressing, too, to know that 
often the white vice districts are located in the heart of the 
Xesjro residential sections. In Norfolk a block of twelve such 
white houses are found in the same S(|uare in which fifty Ne- 
gro homes are situated. Occasionally lilies grow out of dung 
heaps, but not often. The only thing that saves this ])eople is 
their optimism, and their failure to comjirehend their misfor- 
tunes. We ourselves cannot realize their condition : if they 
did, there would be more suicides. These low class homes 
must drag down the average until the better Negroes and the 
better whites combine cheir energies to solve the problem, for 
as Bishop Haygood has said : "Without true religion the pure 
home life is as impossible to the Negro as it is to the white 
man; without pure home life Christian civilization is incon- 
ceivable." And most of this problem ot' home life rests "with 
the warm-blooded women of the race. The white man of 
slavery days too frequently plunged himself and his female 
slaves into an abyss of shame, but a change has come since 
Reconstruction.""' No self-respecting white man dare commit 
such a crime now without losing caste with his fellows. The 
Negro race has its chance to develoj) womanhood capable of 
conserving racial progress. Without such ])ure women the 
task of elevating the race is hopeless. 

We are looking through a window in our University room. 
A row of {)lain brown houses can be seen l)uiU on the side of 
a hill. There appears to be no more difference in their style 
of architecture than one sees in the tombstones that mark the 
graves of privates buried in a U. S. National Cemetery. The 



46. The Plantation Xcprro as a Frccdinaii, V. A. P.riico, pp. .'>, "5 -.").">. 



142 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

Street is muddy, no trees are near, and all things conspire to 
give one a feeling that those houses represent temporary habi- 
tations and not the permanency of homes. The idea of 
transiency is especially abhorrent to home builders. Of course, 
the house and surroundings do not make a home, yet they 
help. Pride in the upkeep of their dwellings can be inculcated 
in the Negro race only as they are urged to own property and 
are taught that every cent paid in beautifying the environs en- 
hances the value of their own possession. It must be said to 
the shame of the white race that too frequently fortunes have 
been amassed by our business men who erected cheap, unat- 
tractive, uncomfortable houses to rent to Negroes, which yield 
a big percentage on the investment, yet rob the blacks of a fair 
start in life for their children. Albums of photographs could 
be presented to prove the unattractiveness of such places, but 
the mention of one will suffice. After leaving Alexandria, Va., 
and when nearing Washington, D. C, there is a brick kiln on 
the left side of the Southern Railway tracks, not far from the 
kiln are stables, and not far from the stables are houses. One 
look at these miserable houses and their back yards will give 
more light upon the moral destitution of a certain class of Ne- 
groes than tons of print. It may be possible for men and 
women to he very godly in such surroundings, but if they can 
be so there, in a better environment they could be angelic. He- 
redity is powerful, but environment is, too. Both are too fre- 
quently against the Negro child's chances for a successful 
moral life. 

Closely connected with this j)roblem of the cultivation of 
home instincts is the question of furnishing proper amusements 
for Negroes. The age of monasticism has gone, and dying em- 
bers of a blue-dyed Puritanism lie smouldering on the hearth, 
giving forth smoke but no warmth or light. The amusements 
of Negroes must be interpreted in a broad-minded wav, or the 
Negro Church will face either the problem of driving the young 
from its doors, or that of sheltering hypocrites. Neither alter- 
native will be necessary, if intelligent leaders will step to the 
fore and guide the Negroes in this important crisis. Kinder- 
garten teachers tell us that playing does not come natural to 



REi<iGious iii:\i:i.()i'Mi XT oi" iiii: m-c.uo 14>^ 

all cliiUlrcii : sonic have to he taus^hl how lo |)la\'. lj^nit)rancc 
concerniiiij this matter is naturally {greatest .among the Ncij^roes, 
and to this race of i;reatest need elTorls liave reccnlK been 
directed. In I .ouisvillc, Ky.. Rev. John Little has been con- 
ilnclin^- a playt^ronnd I'or .\e»;rocs with ^reat success, and in 
our own State. .Mr. W. .M. ('.ra\. ol' the Union 'riieolofijical 
Seminary, has hecn conducting- a \er\- success t'nl one in Kich- 
mond. Lessons of cleanliness, hopefulness and strength can 
be inculcated here when tluw wotdd not l)c tolerated elsewhere. 
-Athletics is practically a new word in a Negro's vocabulary 
and the sooner it becoiues a fixture the better for the race. 
Heretofore we have assumed that a Negro child could get its 
exercise 1)\ working or l)\- rniniing from the "cops." At the 
present, we are inii)r()\ing tlieir nior;ils bv means of an interest- 
in athletics. It is the common e.x])erience of those who con- 
duct such playgrounds that morals are vastly improved by 
them and many of the children who come to play, in later years 
remain to l)ray. 

As long as some of tlie Negro churches failed to recognize 
the difference between dancing and theft, worldliness and tm- 
chastity, and others considered dancing worse than lying and 
playing the fiddle worse than adultery, the whole question of 
amusements remained very acute. The same penalties have 
been known to Ijc infiicted for each of the "sins" enumerated 
above. Theater attendance is also blacklisted, and too frequently 
those guilty of lying or rum-drinking sit in council to tr\- the 
offenders. Dance halls, cheap vaudeville, pool-rooms, eating 
houses and groggeries, with an occasional merry-go-round or 
"movie," make up the ])iggest part of the list of amusements 
of the Negroes. In some of the smaller towns not even one 
single amusement device or ])layground for Negroes is to be 
found, and the streets or churches have to endeavor to suj)])ly 
this craving for fun. Real games are a necessity, especially 
for the young of the slums, and in lieu of diversions, the sins 
which are the accompaniments of idleness arise to destroy. In 
one of the Tidewater cities of Virginia, the colored ^'. .M. C. A. 
secretary found many of the boys ])racticing secret vice sim])ly 
because they had nothing to do and no one h;id lold them bet- 



144 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

ter. The Y. M. C. A. with its baths, play-rooms, athletic con- 
tests, and study classes, is doing much to fill a long felt void 
in the lives of the Negro youths of Virginia, but a multiplica- 
tion of all these forces which make for better amusements is 
now imperative. What will we do about it? At least, we re- 
alize our duties better when we recognize the fact that whole- 
some sport is the inveterate foe of sin. 

In the facts which we have presented above, there seems 
much that would incline the pessimist to be convinced that no 
good is in the Negro and hence no good can come out of him. 
The crimes which they commit, the shallowness of the lives of 
so many, the divorcement of religion and morals, the emotion- 
alism, their self-sufficiency, and many other things, would in- 
cline us naturally to that belief but for the presence of many 
matters of hope. Among these factors the prevalence of op- 
timism is perhaps the most important. The Negro race has 
convinced itself, at least, that there is good in it and along that 
line its conduct is now shaped. No man can say what the at- 
tainments of the race may be if this optimistic spirit continues. 
Virginia Negroes are much blessed in their leaders. The of- 
ficers of the Negro Organization Society are able people and 
the inspiration which this clearing house of Negro progress 
sends out is met with enthusiasm by those to whom it is sent. 
Members of the race are constantly repeating: "We are ris- 
ing." Without optimism they could do little. 

Another matter of hope is the reverent attitude assumed by 
practically all Negroes toward the church. The Negro is not 
a scoft'er. He may be very mistaken in his religious ideals, 
yet he is very true in his faithfulness to the church. The per- 
centage of Negroes who take some part in their worship should 
cause some of the white race to hide their heads in shame. 
Even if the Negro has only one talent, he generously uses that 
one to the best advantage that he can. With nearly fifty per 
cent of the Negroes of Virginia members or communicants of 
churches, and with a large percentage of the others attending 
church services with some degree of regularity, there is a splen- 
did oj)portunity for strong leaders to get hold of the people 
and institute reforms. 



Ri:ui(;.K)LS iii:\ i:i.oi'.\ii:\ r m" Tiiic m:gku 145 

Still another maltcr of hope is the dilTusion of education 
among Negroes."*' Their schools are nicelin^- a(hniral)l\- the 
prohlems presented and are only liandica])i>cil liy a lack of 
means. The edneated Xegro minister, teacher, ;ind hnsiness 
man are rapidly coming to the forefront and are giving the 
race the leadershij) which it so hadly needed soon after emanci- 
pation. An educated Negro who prejudices his Ijrotiiers 
against the white citizens of this State is rare now and will 
probably become even more rare in futin-e. Ignorance was the 
cause of many mistakes made hy the Negro; education will he 
his salvation. Not only yre better leaders at the liead of the 
race, hut better men are following. The old men are better- 
spirited than formerly, and even that emotionalism which is 
now held up to the Xegro as a matter of derision, is fast wan- 
ing. The educated minister of today is generally a man of 
high morals and his impress is not lost on the masses. 

As a last matter of hope { there are many others which might 
be stated), we mention the interest which the people of New 
Virginia are manifesting in the Negro. The man who says 
that the whites look out for themselves, and should therefore 
let the Negroes look out for their own interests, merely con- 
fesses by his attitude how far he is behind the times. We can- 
not still be Christians and afford to let the Negroes go to the 
bad even if they want to do it. Our knowledge should he their 
strength and their weakness our o|)i)ortunity. If we are 
strong spiritually, then we should play the Good Samaritan to 
this unfortunate race. To assume a "Holier than Thou" atti- 
tude would be to stifle ourselves by our own hypocrisy. We 
could hardly live, and certainly could not develop, in such an 
atmosphere. The chance to convert Africa in America is 
here'*'' and we shall not withhold our wisdom and guidance. 
Dr. P. B. Barringer was in entire accord with the truest re- 
ligious views when he wrote: "We took the cannilial and made 
a man of him. and we did it because our grandfathers and 



47. The Neiffo Church, p. 62. 

48. The White Man's Burden. B. F. Riloy. p. 149. 

—10 



146 RELIGIOUS DlvVl^LOPMKNT OI-^ TIIIv NEGRO 

^grandmothers were not ashamed to give themselves to his 
guidance. There are in the South today the same people, and 
in this day of national peril, for it is national, as hard as it 
will he at hrst, they will not he found wanting." ^^ 

In 1696 the Virginia Burgesses complained of the difficulties 
incurred in teaching the Negroes newly imported, and at pres- 
ent, unless the whites disseminate things helpful in an un- 
grudging manner, we may eventually have to face cases of 
reversion to original type. Since slavery days the time has 
never been so ripe as the present for the Negro and the white 
man to do constructive work. Dr. Jas. Dillard, Director of- 
the John F. Slater and the Jeannes funds for the Christian 
education of Negroes, has his headquarters in this State and 
is a living incentive to other able men to give thought and time 
to this element of our composite civilization. The existence of 
clubs among white college students to study the Negro prob- 
lem, further proves that the college men of New Virginia will 
have something more than hearsay evidence to guide them in 
passing judgment upon the merits and demerits of the Negro 
race. That the religious development of the Negro is a re- 
sponsibility which demands the most earnest and careful at- 
tention no one will now deny. Mr. D. Hiden Ramsey has 
said: "It would be impossible to say that we shall do nothing 
for the Negro because the results are not immediate. In our 
program for the Negro we must look for our results to the 
future. Patience, slow time, sympathy, and discernment — 
these must be trusted." ^'" 

The Negro judges the white man very frequently by the 
ruffians who attack him, or by the newspapers that libel his 
race; the white man too frequently judges the Negro only by 
the inferior quality of work done by servants. Most cases of 
dislike that we have investigated showed an economic basis. 
The fact that our cook suddenly leaves, or a farm hand de- 



49. The American Negro, His Past and Future, P. B. Barringer, 
p. 14. 

50. Lecture under auspices of Phelps-Stokes Foundation for the 
study of Race Conditions in the South at University, Va., Jan. 31, 
1914. 



ui:i.ic.H)L\s 1)Kvku)1'.\ii:nt of tiiic xkcko 147 

mands liic^Iicr waqes or even refuses to work. ini])els us to 
exclaim, "llow we hate a Nisi^j^er." Does not this positi<jn 
seem a hit unjust? Our attitude toward this race is too im- 
portant to he dealt with in anything hut a larije, fair-minded 
way. Because a race lives on its own properties and no longer 
serves us in the same capacities as formerly are no just reasons 
for assuming an attitude of hostility to every phase of that 
race's existence. However, this very principle of dislike is at 
the root of much of the condemnation of the modern Negro. 



148 REI^IGIOUS DKVPlLOPMF.XT OP THF, NEGRO 

1865—1913. 

{Continued.) 

In the state of Virginia there are a score or more rehgious 
Ijoclies to which the Negroes pay allegience. However, of the 
307,374 Negro church members in Virginia the Baptist church 
contained about 270,219, or 88 per cent of all Negro communi- 
cants, according to the census of 1906.^ The Methodist bodies 
followed with about 30,492 members or about 10 per cent of 
the total, and the remaining bodies follow with a few more 
than 6,000, or about 2 per cent of the total Negro membership. 
In reality the great Negro faith of this State is Baptist and its 
nearest competitor is some form of Methodism. The com- 
bined value of the buildings in which these Virginia Negro 
worshippers gather was reported to be $3,562,930 in 1906 with 
a little over $300,000 debt, and the total value of such prop- 
erty has undoubtedly increased very much since that time. Be- 
tween the census of 1890 and the religious census of 1906 the 
Negroes gained aljout 70,000 in the number of their members 
and nearly doubled the value of their church property.- Ad- 
vances have been made and are being made so rapidly that 
books can hardly be issued from the press fast enough to re- 
cord the constantly changing phases of this portion of the 
Negro's life. When the Decennial Religious Bodies Census of 
1916 is taken, and its contents made known, the part played 
by Virginia Negroes in the religious life of the race will be 
no unworthy one. 

The first eleven ecclesiastical bodies in Virginia in the order 
of their Negro members' numerical standing in 1906 were: 
Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal, 
African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Reformed Zion Union 
Apostolic (Colored), Presbyterian Church in the United States 
of America, Protestant Episcopal, Colored Primitive Baptists 



1, United States Census. Religious Bodies 190(), Part I, p. 5()2. 

2. Statistics of Clnirches. Eleventh Census 1890, p. 49. 



RF.LIOIOUS DIvVlvLOl'MKN'r Ol" Till' .\i:C,R() 14'^ 

in America, Colurcil Methodist ICpiscupal Cliureli, Cliri>tians 
( Cliristian Connection), Disciples of Christ: 'IMiere are other 
bodies that are doinc;' excellent work, hnl they ha\e made no 
great achanccs in the chnrch life of Negroes. The doctrine and 
policy of the Negro chnrches corres])ond very closely to those 
of the white churches. It is indeed difficult to understand why 
some of the churches maintain an independent existence when 
they might do better work united. For instance, W. L. Flem- 
ing says that the main difference between the A. M. K. and the 
A. M. E. Zion Church according to a Negro member of the 
latter was that in one the dues are twenty-five cents a week and 
in the other twenty." The larger Negro eccesiastical organiza- 
tions have their own Church papers, official organs, and these 
are read extensively. In the Presbyterian and Episcopal 
churches the Negro ministry is especially well prepared, and 
also in the Methodist churches the influence of their respective 
Bishops generally has a tendency to keep the men on their 
mettle, but the educational results yet attained by the strictly 
Negro churches have not been so great as in the churches un- 
der white supervision. Indeed the phenomena seen in some 
of the Baptist churches are practically without anything like 
counterparts in the Presbyterian or Episcopal churches. The 
church strongest in numbers ministers primarily to the masses, 
although it certainly numbers in its membership some of the 
finest of our Negroes, while some of the smaller churches do 
effective work almost entirely for the higher classes. The 
classes claim that there is too nuich emotionalism in the Bap- 
tist and iNIethodist Churches ; the masses claim that there is no 
"feelin' " and too many "gittin' up's and down's" in the Epis- 
copal church. Each Negro church should have its hands full, 
and no one church has time for jealousy or bickerings while 
there is so much work to do. 

Unless otherwise specified we shall write of the ])opular Bap- 
tist churches since some of the others exhibit few or no ])he- 
nomena which would be striking. In many churches among the 
Negroes we have worshipped in audiences as calm and orderly. 



3. Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama, \V. L. Fleming, p. 
649. 



150 REI^IGIOUS DE^VE^LOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

and outwardly at least, as unemotional as the average church 
among the white people. We shall not dwell upon this higher 
type of church longer than to express the wish that others 
would go and do likewise. 

The church buildings in which the Negroes worship are usu- 
ally far more excellent structures than one not acquainted with 
their liljerality would imagine that they could erect. Few of 
them fail to have solid benches within, stained glass windows, 
a good pulpit and pulpit furniture, an organ, and book-cases or 
chests for Sunday- School supplies, etc. Frequently the same 
Negroes who live in squalid hovels worship in their own church 
palaces. Their ambition too frequently has been to build fine 
churches rather than good characters. A desire for a showy 
house of worship and a big attendance have been factors which 
lured the Negro preachers and church members to make sac- 
rifices heretofore unheard of in America. Scriptural names 
are generally given to their churches, but this rule by no means 
always holds true. In the cities the larger churches are gener- 
ally in the heart of the black belts with occasional missions or 
smaller churches on the outskirts. In the country, an effort is 
made to have the newly built churches near most of their mem- 
bers, but the power of some "big" member occasionally influ- 
ences the location of the site at some distance from such a true 
center. Most Negro churches have a great bell to call worship- 
pers to the building, and most churches are kept scrupulously 
neat and clean. Even though their furnishings are often showy 
and cheap, they are generally the best that the members can af- 
ford at the particular time ; a later visit would probably show 
an improvement. Old fogyism is bitterly attacked ; the effort 
is to keep up to date. 

Sunday is a busy day with the Negroes. In the morning 
Sunday-school is in session first, then the morning preaching 
service. A few of the Sunday-schools are doing good work, 
but they are not well attended by the older people and their 
superintendents and teachers need the supervision of special- 
ists. The tremendous advance in Bible school work manifested 
by the whites has not yet found a similar enthusiasm among 
the blacks. Some of the more progressive churches, however, 
have adopted these new ideas of conducting Sunday-school 



KI"I.!i.li>rS l'i:\'i;i.()l'Mi:.\'l' Ol" Tin: NIK'.KO 151 

work and cvcnlualiy all will calcli uj) with llic iJrocosioii. 
After the Suiulay-school session the rejj^ular mornint,^ ])reachinji[ 
service beg^ins. *^Miere is rarely any liurry al)()Ut hciijinning 
promptly. Tlio .W-jj^ro y^cts enouij^h of promptness and ])usli 
vlnrini,^ the week from his while employers. Leisurely the serv- 
ice l)et::ins and more leisurely it ends. 'Idie afternoon is gen- 
erally free for visitino; or resting, but occasionally society meet- 
ings make demands even on this brief time. Before the even- 
ing service, the B. Y. P. U.'s. I'.pworth Leagues, or Christian 
Endeavor societies have a session, and then comes the greatest 
service of the day — the evening preaching service. 

Many of the people who are employed as cooks or house- 
maids — peoj)le in service — do not "get otV" until tlie Sunday 
dinner has been served at the homes of their while employers, 
vet even this much time in the afternoon meant some relaxation 
and some preparation for the evening (night) service at the 
church. \'ery naturally with so many released from their daily 
tasks, the evening service is the largest among the Negroes, 
while it is usually smaller among the whites. We have often 
attended such services and have noticed that a feeling of sup- 
pressed pleasure seemed to mark each black countenance. It 
would certainly seem that enthusiasm for church going is a lost 
art among the whites when compared with the weekly demon- 
.stration bv the blacks. it must be rcnicml)ercd. loo, that in 
country churches evening services are frequently dispensed 
with during the winter because of bad roads, coldness, etc.. but 
this is made up for by the great attendance at the protracted 
meeting night services during the summer. In the cities with 
sidewalks and less distance to travel no such disparity in at- 
tendance with respect to the seasons is shown. 

In the cities during the week nights or days there are prayer- 
meetings, class meetings. Board of Officers' meetings, Pastor's 
Aid Society meetings and missionary society meetings. Mar- 
riages and funerals also interest the blacks and are usually well 
attended. These strictly business or religious sessions are 
often supplemented by social affairs and the result is that 
nearly all of the after working hours' time of the Negroes is 
about to be monopolized by the church. And, indeed, .if we 
take into account the prominent ])lace taken in tlieir thought 



152 ri:ligious development oe the negro 

life by tlie church and its behefs, we can see conditions which 
remind us at least of some features of the seventeenth century 
in Scotland or the Middle Ages in Europe. It would be pain- 
ful to think that religious services were not congenial to a peo- 
ple who spend such a considerable portion of their lives as the 
Negroes do in attending them. * 

The Negro church service usually begins in song and the 
prominence given music is perhaps the most noteworthy fea- 
ture of their services. The man would have to be absolutelv 
deaf not to be interested in the weird, almost doleful tunes that 
the Negroes sing with such pleasure. There is something 
soothing about them. Few tasks could be more difficult than 
that of writing on paper just how their old time melodies 
sound. There is nothing in the music ordinarily heard by the 
white people to which this music can be compared. Minors 
are brought out strongly and the peculiarly placed accents and 
rests give the total efifect of something between a chant and a 
funeral dirge, yet the music has other wonderful effects that 
make it more than ravishing to the Anglo-Saxon ear. The 
modern hymns show few eft'ects of such treatment and have 
few features worthy of remark, but when a "spiritual" has 
been begun and the venerable "uncles" and "aunts" of the 
long ago stir in their seats and take notice, one may rest as- 
sured that he has not heard some of the most remarkable 
music in the world, if he has missed this. The choirs sing — 
and they are proud of their choirs — each individual claiming 
that his own church has the best music, but the appeal does 
not come through them. They interest the black worshippers, 
but do not delight them. We have frequently attended their 
services and considered the singing entirely disappointing until 
one of these old favorites had been started and then all pre- 
vious misgivings gave away in the presence of the fact that 
they could sing if they would. Many Negroes soon after the 
war endeavored to discard the old songs because they consid- 
ered them reminiscent of slavery, but such a tendency should 
be immediately arrested as entirely derogatory to the race's best 
interests. Such favorites as "Steal Away," "Swing Low Sweet 
Chariot," and "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Staiid" should be 
immortal. The "spirituals" are predominant among the Ne- 



RELIGIOUS l>l':\l-:i.ii|'M|-N T III" Till* XFt'J^") 153 

ero's jireatest assets, aiul il would he a national trap^edy should 
they he forfjotten hy the ])resent or future .^generations. 

Before the I'aslor takes an aetivc i>arl in the rhurch ser\iee 
the Negroes usuall\- ineel and have a song service. During 
this ])reliminary service the nnmhers are not called out. hut 
some singer starts a hymn and sings perhaps a whole line he- 
fore the others make out clearly what it is, or he fore they are 
prepared to add to the volume. When this piece is thorotighly 
under way it is carried on until the end and then there is a silence 
for a minute or so until another singer starts up something 
else. Thus it goes until the preacher takes his place in the 
pulpit and announces a hymn. He "lines" it out for them fre- 
quently.-* We have heard thus read the whole hymn, then re- 
turn to the hrst verse and read two lines (line them) wliich 
is followed hy that much singing, then read two more lines, etc., 
etc.. until tlie end is reached. This method enahles even those 
who do not read to catch the words, and also calls attention 
to the import of the song as well as to the music. When the 
preacher can line them well the result is very impressive. 

The Negro has a musical ear. Very few rehearsals find 
him qualified to "hear down" on a song. This aptness to learn 
music has inspired some ingenious composers of songs to go 
from hig meeting to hig meeting, singing their compositions 
and then selling them at so much ]ier copy. A good singer. 
usually termed a "Professor," who has a song with some swing 
to it can realize (|uite a neat sum at such a gathering. This 
type of song is well illustrated by a printed sheet that was pur- 
chased from Rev. J. C). Seay, who is a janitor at one of the 
Chemical laboratories at the University of Virginia, and is 
also pastor of a little flock near Charlottesville. His song en- 
titled "Citv of Refuge" exhibits the well-known tendency of 



4. Inside \'icw of Slavery. C. G. Parsons, M. D.: "In the early 
history of our country when books were scarce and expensive, our 
forefathers were in the habit of sinffin^ at church without hymn- 
books,— the minister reading aloud one Hne at a time and then the 
congreg-ation joining to sing it." Thus in things musical the Negro 
is travelling the road our fathers trod, just as some Negro churches 
to-day exhil)it emotionalism, as the whites exhiliited it during tlie 
last part of the eighteenth century. 



134 RELIGIOUS DKVELOPMENT OF THF NEGRO 

Negro preachers to dwell especially on the prominent Old 
Testament characters. 

1. "The decree was signed by Darius, and then, 

Daniel was cast in the Lion's Den ; 
God sent an angel on his accord, 
He came and locked the lion's jaw. 

Chorus. 

"I am going to run, I am going to run, 
I am going to run to the City of Refuge, 
I am going to run. 

2. "Job was a man whom God did love; 

God gave Job a home above, 
The time came he had to die. 
Then Job was taken up in the sky. 

Chorus. 

3. "Elijah and Elisha they went together, 
God took one and left the other 

Elijah looked and did aspire 

He saw the chariot and the horses of fire." 

Chorus. 

A new Testament character is thus introduced in the last 
verse : 

9. "They put John in a kettle of oil 

God was with him and he never got soiled 
With hallowed power, the angel came 
Went into the kettle and cooled the flame." 

Chorus. 

Another important feature of their singing throws much 
light upon a certain form of literary composition. The stu- 
dents of the ballad have a theory that the fine old English bal- 
lads, of which we have survivals in this State, were not the 
result of the authorship of an individual but were the outcome 
of community authorship. Anyone who will take the trouble to 
attend a Negro church during big meeting times will hear com- 



RF.i.ir.iois i)i;\i;i,(ii'Mi:.\i' oi" tiii' .\i".<".u() 135 

muiiitv authorship of hymns ^oinjj^ on in his very presence.'" 
For inslanoe, in certain son^i^s the uk-vv snhsiitutioii of a (hfTcr- 
enl name enal)les thcni in sinj^ ai^ain tlic whole stanza withonl 
feehng that they are repeating-. The most i<,niorant kitchen 
servant mitjht hv snch means contril)iUe to the most heautifnl 
songs. That tliis has often happened no stndent of Negro 
church music can deny. In sncli a song as "Peter (io Ring deni 
Bells" '■ we see these possihilities exemplilied. viz : 

"( Ml, I'eter go ring dem l)ells 
Oh, Peter go ring dem l)ells 
Oh, Peter go ring dem hells 
I heard from heaven to-day. 
I wonder where my mother is gone 
I wonder where my mother is gone 
I wonder where my mother is gone 
I heard from heaven to-day. 

Chorus. 
I heard from heaven to-day 
I heard from heaven to-day 
I thank God, and I thank you too 
I heard from heaven to-day. 

"I wonder where Sister Mary's gone 
I heard from heaven to-day, 
I wonder where Sister Martha's gone 
I heard from heaven to-day 
Its good news and I thank God 
I heard from heaven to-day 

Peter, go ring dem hells 

1 heard from heaven to-day. 

Chorus. 

"I wonder where hrudder Moses gone, 
I wonder where lirudder David gone, etc. 
He's gone where Elijah has gone," etc., ad infinitum 



5. For this conception of the composition of sonic Xejrro cluirch 
music we are indebted to Dr. C. Alphonso Smith. Edgar .'Mian Foe 
Professor of Englisli at the University of \'irginia. 

6. Hampton and Its Students, ]>y M. I'. .Armstrong and Helen W. 
Ludlow, pp. 174, 175. 



156 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

We have said in a previous chapter that the Negro is mighty 
in prayer. This is true whether it is made to apply to men or 
women. We have heard young Negro women frame prayers 
that would do credit to manv theological students. If theirs 
was not a baring of the heart, we never expect to hear words 
paint a picture. Frequently, such prayers are repetitious and 
almost without exception characterized by imagery. This is 
one form of service in which the Negro church is superior to 
the white. Many Negroes in a single congregation are always 
prepared to "put up" a prayer when called on. The preacher 
arranges the first part of his service so that there are several 
songs and several prayers. Sometimes there is little more dif- 
ference between the two than that which exists between cho- 
ruses and solos. Such church prayers always become "sing- 
songy." The first part of the prayer is uttered in normal tones, 
and after a minute or so the calm utterance gives place to the 
half singing element which constitutes the main body of the 
prayer. At a place near the end the change from the climax 
comes suddenly and the quiet speaking voice is again resumed 
until the Amen is said. During the main body of the prayer 
the whole congregation rises on the wings of faith with the 
person who is praying and all are ready in spirit to aid the sup- 
pliant as he wrestles with the Almighty. We have heard as 
many as ten "Amen's" and several "God grant it's" at one 
moment while such a prayer was in progress, and such encour- 
agement is doubly dear to the heart of the Negro. Soon after 
he begins his prayer the Negro seems to be delighted that at 
last the Lord in Heaven lends an ear to his supplications. He 
is transformed. The same Negro that we saw driving a white 
mule during a summer's day was standing before the congre- 
gation that night with all the sense of importance of an am- 
bassador ])lenipotentiary as he poured out his tale of human 
woes and earthly sorrows into the ear of the Infinite. The 
pathetic element in his voice was comparable to a funeral dirge 
and his intonation was as dreamy and sonorous as a twilight 
song. The scene was so realistic and his tones so mournful, 
that if the man had been condemned to sufifer the sorrows of 
the damned and had suddenly been informed that he might es- 



Ki'.i.ii.iors nK\'i:i.()i'Mi:Ni' oi' riii- xi-.t'.Ko 137 

cape punisliment if he pleaded j^owerfully cnout::!! with his 
jiidc^e, no more patlictic, api^calins^ element could have charac- 
terized his voice. Tlicre were fervor, su])plication. humility, 
an acknowledjjmenl of sin nud a thankfulness for esca])ed i)it- 
falls in such prayers, that cannot he expressed hy Ann^lo-Saxon 
lips ; it is the Ne,s^ro's province and in it he rei.i^ns su])reme. 

l)r. Howard W. Odum ' has written out two i)rayers uttered 
by Negroes that accord so fully with our experience while in 
attendance at their services that he shall <|Uote them as models. 
The italics indicate the intoned portions: "() Lord, to-nii^ht 
our Fadder. we thank thee for the privilege which thou has 
promised us to engage in this hour for the express purpose of 
having us to worship thee with reverent prayer. Most holy, 
Fadder, besides thee we know no other name whereby we can 
be saved. Most liolx Cod, our Fodder, our Fadder, you have 
said i)i xo' most holy and written word that where one or two 
or three a' yo' bclievin' servants eome togedder you zvould he 
in de midst of yo' ehilluns. And Oh, Oh, Jesus, we ask yon to 
come into tins little 'semhly an' endozc us with thy sj^iril. JTe'se 
but frail creatures an' evil, zve doan feel zcorthy o' callin on 
vou to-niyht. our heavenly Father, zee doan feel zcorthy o' cal- 
lin' on thee, hut zee ask you to-niglit to eome into our midst. 
O Lord, bless them that's not here, hover 'round them the arm 
a' protection. JVe ask you to bless the sinner to-night an' the 
gambler an' Z\.'e ask you to bless the dancin' zeomen. ll'e thank 
thee to-night, our Fadder, that las' night zee did not lay dozen 
on de bed o' death an' zeake up this morniii' in the inornin' o' 
judgment. O my Lord, zeouldst thou be pleased to remind me 
to-tnorrozv the sun iiiay rise on my grave. An' O Lord zeouldst 
thou be pleased to bless yo' servant to-night zeho's been zeaitin' 
so long. Oh. oh. my Lord, thou divine and heavenly Father. 
God of the zeorld a)i' tender love, please hear yo' servant to- 
night. Oh, oh, my Lord smnetimes zve try to zeeep but zee 
can't zeeep: come dozvn to-niglit an' zeeep zeid us; O Lord, to- 
night, our Fadder. sometimes zee try to sing an' zee can't sing; 
come dozen to-night, our Fadder, an' sing zeid us — 

"Now, our Fadder, when we done tolin'. wlien we done meet- 



7. Social and Mental Traits of the Xegro. pp. 09-72. 



158 RELIGIOUS de:velopment of thf negro 

in,' when we done minglin' here, when we don't 'tend no mo' 
meetin's when we'se done coniin' to dis ole church — save our 
souls is the petition of yo" Inimble servant, for Chris' sake — 
Amen." 

A woman's pathetic prayer: "Oh — oli — Lord, to-night, blass 
the basterin child, wherever he is: Oh — oh — Lord, bless my 
mothe/s children scattered in foreign lands: oh — oh — Lord, 
bless my sister's children to-night. Oh — oh — Lord, yon knozcs 
my heart an' you knozvs I zvants to do right: oh — oh — Lord, 
give me clean hands an' clean heart, an' oh — oh — Lord, you has 
blessed me befo' zifhen I prayed an' you has promised to bless 
me ag'in if I come in de right spirit an Oh — oh — Lord, to-night 
bless me; an' you has promised to have mercy on yo' chilluns an 
it does seem like zee need mercy over this Ian' to-night . . . ." 
Such pathetic prayers indicate magnificent possibilities if we 
could only be sure that the persons who uttered them lived 
proper lives, but frequently we have been assured by friends at- 
tending meetings with us that So-and-So who prayed so long 
was a grand rascal. There are more, however, who are mighty 
in prayer who live exemplary lives. It must never be overlooked 
that some Negro preachers do not pray typical Negro prayers, 
but speak as calmly as the white ministers. Even in such in- 
stances the "aniens" are frequent, but the excitement is less and 
the volume of sound not so great. 

After the singing of several hymns and the prayers are fin- 
ished the preacher reads the Scripture lesson, chooses his text 
and preaches. Negroes are natural preachers. There are many 
degrees of men who have entered this holy calling, varying from 
the "pot liquor" preachers who gladly rant for the sake of a 
meal, to the educated, higher class Negro who really does his 
race much good by his excellent example and splendid Gospel 
messages. There is generally an abundance of preachers, and 
sad to relate, many are not worth their salt. A single congrega- 
tion will frequently have several local preachers and is also sub- 
ject to the occasional visits of a tramp preacher. The tramp 
preacher comes into a neighborhood with his hand-bag, preaches 
a sermon, is not a real element in the community in which he 
works perhaps once a month, accepts his pay, and then hies off 
to other fields only to return after another interval. Community 



KKi.ic.K )rs 1)1v\i:l()1'.mi:.\ r <ii" Tin; nii.ko 13'> 

life and leadership cannot l)e built under sucli adverse circum- 
stances. The rural districts arc the real sufferers from this kind 
of minister as well as from those w ho know no farnuni^- or prac- 
tical business."* 

The sermun matter is usualK a mere recitation of some I'ible 
story with some well-pointed morals. There are certain time- 
honored texts which have s^rown familiar to all hearers from 
constant usage, yet these are allowed little rest. The sermon 
begins with ven- calm statements, hut this feature of their wor- 
ship is not ditterent from the others in that, as time rolls on, the 
enthusiasm rises. The rousing eiYect of the spirited songs and 
the intense emotions aroused by the prayers have not fully sub- 
sided before the preacher leaves his calm, (juiet manner and ap- 
pears in the role of a dispenser of "rousements." lie tells of 
the examples set by men of old, rarely omitting Elijah and the 
chariot of fire, or the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, 
and eventually approaches a climax in which all his hearers are 
taken u]) to walk with King Jesus on the streets of gold in 
Heaven, the home of the redeemed. During this mental ascent 
from the toils and ills of this life to a home of rest and happi- 
ness in the skies, the hearers have hung upon every word, not 
to weigh its value, but to give assent thereto. In an atmosphere 
of excitement the eiTect of the sermon is usually measured by 
its appeal to the emotions. Never does a man ai)pear before a 
more sympathetic audience than when he appears before a con- 
gregation of Negroes. Whether the preacher be white or black 
the Negro listener gets into the service by lending him encourage- 
ment. As his enthusiasm rises, theirs does too. It is a wonder 
that the preacher can think, amid such coaching, yet the Negro 
preachers seem to glory in these exclamations : "Talkin'," "Tell 
"em 'bout it," "Prea'chin" now," "Yes," "He's right, too," 
"Um— huh," "Ha— ha." "Talkin', preacher," "Preachin' de 
word," "Amen,— Amen," "Lord God," "Lord help us." Many 
other ejaculations one hears, especially from the amen corner, 
although that place has no monopoly on the output. We have 
heard one woman cooing like a dove, another claj^ping her hands, 

8. The Future of the American Negro. Booker T. Washington, pp. 
29, 30. 



160 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

still another patting her feet, and have been convinced by the 
shaking of heads and swaying of bodies that the intensity of 
such a scene must be a tremendous strain upon the worshippers. 
It is inevitable that some poorly prepared men should be or- 
dained. Congregational government accounts for many of 
these instances. One old Negro who thought that the mystic 
letters G. P. meant go preach was later informed by his dis- 
gruntled congregation that the letters really meant go plow, 
and the chances are about a thousand to one that the congre- 
gation was right. "Calls" are constantly coming to Negroes. 
A Negro that we have seen in Hanover County declared that 
an angel of the Lord appeared to him and seemed to be stand- 
ing in a window in the elements on the occasion when his call 
was received. Booker Washington relates in his autobiography, 
"Up from Slavery," the process of falling out on the floor of 
the church in his home town when such "calls" came to the 
Negroes who had learned to read, and he feared that after 
he got his education a "call" w^ould come to him also, but he 
was spared.^ The work of the minister has long since been 
considered a sinecure by the Negroes and the high-flown talk 
and imposing strut of the ignorant Negro preacher are too well 
known to need comment. We have not found, however, that 
the Negro preachers who are active at present oppose manual 
labor as some have contended,^" but their influence has been 
quite to the contrary. Undoubtedly some men did go into the 
ministry to dodge hard work. Booker Washington tells of such 
a case (undoubtedly imaginary) in which this factor was po- 
tent. He says a colored man in Alabama, one hot day in July, 
while he was at work in a cotton field, suddenly stopped, and 
looking toward the skies, said, "O, Lord, de cotton am so grassy, 
de work am so hardj and the sun am so hot dat I believe dis 
darky am called to preach." ^^ How difl^erent are such motives 
for entering the ministry from those seen in the definition of 
a "call," as given l)y Dr. E. M. Poteat, President of Furman 



9. Up from Slavery. Booker T. Washington, p. 82. 

10. Educational Review. March 1901. p. 241. P. B. Barringer. 
Also, The American Negro, Wm. Hannil)al Thomas, p. (iS. 

11. L'p from Slavery, Booker T. Washington, p. 128. 



Ki:i,i(;i(>rs i)i:\ i:i.()rMi;.\T oi* iiii'; .Nia.Ko 161 

University. Dr. I'otcit in a U'ticr to us wrote: "The man 
who has come to a deep consciousness of Cod and his own sin 
and of the sins of his own ])eo])le and has had experience of 
the cleansing' i^race of Christ and of \earninj^s to hel]) in the 
great work (lod is doin_<; in the world is prohahlv called to be 
a preacher. 1 say f^robahly for the reason that it is not certain 
that he is called, if there are no defects or hindrances he ought 
to go into the work of the luiiiistry."' We venture to say that 
few indeed aniou^- the Negroes have risen hii^h enough to be 
intiuenceil b\- such a factor as IVesident Poteat has stated; yet 
by means of the etTorts of missionaries who hold institutes, de- 
liver lectures, and give study courses, the work of the Negro 
ministry is being pictured in its true light and many worthy 
Negroes are now undertakini,' the duties of the ministry as a 
life-work. 

If the old adage is true, "Like priest ; like people" then the 
responsibility is great to see that the Negro preachers are good 
leaders. Public sentiment must do this, and it can. The in- 
temperate, dishonest, lecherous, ignorant Negro preacher is des- 
tined to go when public opinion is thoroughly aroused. Only 
intelligence awakens public opinion ; ignorance lulls to sleep. 
Not even the sacred precincts of the Negro preacher's home 
will be free from the i)eering eyes of the world, and his home 
life must be as nearly ideal as j)ossible to satisfy the public's 
demands. Emotionalism, self-glory and corrupt politics must 
be promptly eschewed and the eiTort must constantly be made 
to be at peace with all men. Conciliation will win where a 
grim insistance on rights will merely meet rebuff. The i)rcach- 
er's whole life must be lived hefc^re men so that he can be 
instantly accountable for every deed without fear of shame or 
compromise. One ounce of exam])le means more for the Ne- 
gro's uplift than tons of print or oceans of vocal torrents. 

The Negroes of Virginia have had many talented ministers 
in their midst since the War. Rev. Harvey Johnson born in 
Fauquier. Rev. C. C. Vaughn born in Dinwiddie, Rev. Christo- 
pher 11. Payne. Rev. James 11. Holmes, pastor of a church 
with nearly 5,000 members, and Rev. John Jasper of "Sun do 
move" fame have been among their best-known religious lead- 

— H 



162 RKLir.IOUS DKVKLOPMENT ()F TIIE: NEGRO 

ers of the recent past. We shall choose, for brevity's sake, 
only two of tiie present day ministers for mention in this place: 
one from the strongest denomination and the other from the 
eleventh. Rev. A. Binga, Jr., a Baptist preacher of South Rich- 
mond, is now a man of some years, but his vigor of intellect 
seems unabated and his excellent character has won for him 
the universal esteem of the sound thinking people of Rich- 
mond. His influence is positively for good and this State would 
be fortunate to have more such reliable men as leaders of the 
Negro race. Concerning a volume of sermons which Rev. 
Binga published, the distinguished Southerner, Dr. J. L. M. 
Curry, wrote: "My dear Brother: With your letter of May 3d 
came the volume of Sermons. Frequent absence from home 
and much work have prevented an early examination of the 
book — Now I write to express the pleasure and instruction I 
have derived from your 'offering to the cause of Christ.' In 
many respects, the Sermons are unique and valuable, because 
of real ability, of evangelical orthodoxy, of excellent s])irit, 
and as proof and hopeful augury of the advancement of your 
race. I shall treasure this volume of sermons as the production 
of an esteemed brother." We believe that there are many other 
preachers who might be mentioned for their intellectual ability 
as makers of sermons, but W. E Nash, a minister of the Dis- 
ciples of Christ, by his excellent bearing and forceful message 
not only served his own people faithfully, but also won his way 
into the hearts of the white State Convention of that brother- 
hood which met at Lynchburg in September, 1913. i- At the 
conclusions of his address some were heard to say, "Others have 
done well, but the 'brother in black' excelled them all" and 
Judge Garnett of Tidewater Virginia suggested that if black 
men could preach like that we needed to black up a few of the 
white ministers. To deny the capacity for uplifting service to 
such men as these would be little less than criminal. The prob- 
lem is, how to get more such men. 

We can see no possible solution except along the line of in- 
telligence. The letters which tell of the first definite attempts 



12. Report in Christian Monthly. October, 1913, p. 7. 



Ki:i.ic.i()rs i)i:\'i:i.(M'Mi;.\T oi" Tin: m-.i.ko 1(j3 

to educate the Negroes for the ministry in schools arc abso- 
lutely i)atheticJ"' As Dr. C'oKrr >ai(l, "W'e almost ha\c to 
make the niiiul to instruct." Soon after the war such a statement 
was hardly an exaix.i(cration. It was at least a very ])0])ular fal- 
lacy if it was. .\t Fredericksburg in 1870 the Virginia liajjtist 
State Convention ( Xegro) went on record as anxious for a bet- 
ter educated ministry, when a corres])on(ling secretary's re- 
port boldly said: "( )ne great hindrance to the cause of mis- 
sions in tlie State, is the want of an inklHgcnt ministry. The 
population are in darkness, and luany of the ministering breth- 
ren are not i)repared to enlighten them. Let the Convention 
instruct, or advise all the brethren to devote as much time as 
they possibly can to study, in order that they may be better pre- 
pared to the work of the ministry, in edifying the church and 
perfecting the saints." ^^ Xothing is more persistently urged 
at these conventions than the improvement of the ministers. 
In the long run the community which is blessed with a well 
trained, intelligent Negro minister is likely to show progress 
along other lines and the community which is cursed with the 
opposite type of minister is likely to be tilled with despair. i-"' 
The country preacher should know^ how to plow as well as to 
pray ; the city preacher should know sociology as well as theol- 
ogy. As intelligence in the pews becomes more prevalent 
among the Negroes, a ministry must rise to the occasion. The 
intelligent Negro laymen are asking for bread and they will not 
be content with stones. I'ulpits characterized by emptiness of 
ideas and fullness of sound will not ever remain i)0])ular. No 
feature of Negro church life is more dei)loral)le than the care- 
lessness sometimes manifested in ordaining men to the minis- 
try. The Negroes will follow; they must ha\e leaders who 
can and will lead. Just here is where the modern Negro has 
his chance. 

The j^rimitive type of preacher is the luost popular at pres- 



13. Histor}' of tlic RichmoiHl Theological Seminary. C. H. Corey, 
pp. 02. 63. 

14. See Baptist Year Book. 1871. 

15. The Demand and the Supply of Increased Efficiency in the Xc- 
gro Ministry. Jesse E. Morelaml. 



164 RELIGIOUS de;velopment of the: negro 

ent. A new type, however, is fast evolving. This new type 
of preacher will hardly attain to the popularity of the old style 
minister, hut more good will be done by his ministry. At pres- 
ent, the college minister is laboring over form. His gestures, 
voice effects, appearance, etc., are important matters now, but 
he is surely improving. The habit of borrowing sermons and 
trying to lose his identity in the white man's no longer enthralls 
him. High ideals are inculcated in these men at their colleges 
and they are leaders in cultivating race pride after they have 
accepted a pastorate. A few of these young preachers are silly 
enough to antagonize the whites, but this minority is not in- 
fluential and is almost universally decried by the real Negro 
leaders. A saner type of Negro preacher is here, and it is en- 
tirely becoming that the white people should recognize his 
worth and give the credit where it is due, or at least distin- 
guish between the bad and good among them sufficiently to 
place no crimes, or even blame, at the doors of the innocent. 

After the singing and praying and preaching portions of the 
service have been concluded, we see something that makes us 
think that the climax has come. Generally some "gifted" 
speaker, a church officer, stands near a table placed in front 
of the pulpit and makes an appeal for money. The nature of 
this appeal is frequently anything but elevating. The object 
seems to be to get the people in good humor. The choir 
usually sings during the offering. The method of giving is for 
the giver to leave his seat, walk up to the table at the front of 
the church, place the money on the table, and then return to 
his seat. Naturally, some of the belles desire to make many 
trips to the table to show their charms, and this process leads 
to small deposits on each trip, but a surprisingly large 
total. As a man who "lifts" a collection continues his plea for 
more money the Negroes have been known to give their last 
cent, and the surprising thing of it all is that the amount that 
they set out to raise is usually raised. "We must have ten dol- 
lars on this table to-night" the collection "lifter" announces and 
ten dollars is very likely to get there. After all have been given 
an opportunity to come to the table, the baskets or hats are 
passed through the congregation to gather up the remnants. The 



RELioiois 1)i:\i:i.()1'.mi:nt ()!•• Till': .\i:C,K() 165 

conntincf of the money has been going on dnring all this liincr 
and the services are ahont flonc. 

The objection has been made that the collcHlidii coniins^ after 
the sermon leaves little ui the ini])ressi()n of the sermon (jn the 
minds of tlie worshippers."' Spiritual truth has few chances 
to survive through some of the jokes and jibes incident to "lift- 
ing" a collection. The dignity of the service is thus rudely 
shocked. But the Negroes do give. The wbites ba\e not a])- 
proaclu'd them in this matter of liberality. With the Negroes 
it is an every member matter. The regular yearly expenses — 
assessments — are met and a host of special offerings are con- 
stantly being received. The congregation is divided into teams 
and the pride of the victorious caj)tain is almost unl)Ounded. 
When these teams begin fighting it out in a i^77.52 rally or a 
$300.00 rally tiie amounts somehow mysteriousl}' arrive. Sac- 
rifice accounts for much of their success, yet the cynical de- 
clare that the cook's basket, a national institution, explains 
much of the mystery. One thing is certain, the ])roverbiaI 
chicken thieves among the Negroes are fewer in number at 
present than formerly and even if it is a temptation to the Negro 
to attach a rooster to himself occasionally, so the deposits of a 
bank or a railroad are temptations to the white man, and we 
frequently inmish one as severely as the other, 'fhe lack of 
proi)er influences is seen in every word uttered by a Negro 
maid to her mistress when caught stealing. "Law. mam. don't 
say I'se wicked ; old Aunt Ann says it allers right for us poor 
colored peojile to 'propriate whatever of the wite folks blessin's 
de Lord puts in our way." Petty thefts are foolish for pro])- 
erty owners to think about. Hard work certainly accounts for 
most of the money paid into the church by Negroes, and none 
of the glory of their liberality should be minimized by carping 
on an occasional departure from the j^aths of rectitude. We 
have ascertained from letters sent to the leading white denom- 
inational mission boards that considerably more than a million 
dollars have been contributed by them to various forms of 
educational and church work in X'irginia. Individual whites 
have added many more thousands to this grand total. 



16. Reforms in Negro Church Wor.sliip. A. Biiitia, Jr. 



166 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

These services continue until late in the night, and when the 
benediction is pronounced, it is time that the worshippers should 
rest. 

No one could describe a protracted meeting — "big meeting" 
— because words fail to convey an adequate conception of such 
occasions. The most interesting of such meetings take place 
in the country during the month of August. A "big" city 
preacher is usually called on to do the preaching and these serv- 
ices last for a week or so during much of the day and fre- 
quently up to midnight. All of the phenomena seen in city 
churches are heightened and enlarged in the country meetings. 
Du Bois has expressed some of the intensity of such an occa- 
sion in his much quoted lines : "A sort of suppressed terror 
hung in the air and seemed to seize us — a pythian madness, a 
demoniac possession, that lent terrible reality to song and word. 
The black and massive form of the preacher swayed and quiv- 
ered as the words crowded to his lips and flew at us in singular 
eloquence. The people moaned and fluttered, and then the 
gaunt-cheeked brown woman beside me suddenly leaped straight 
in the air and shrieked like a lost soul, while round about came 
wail and groan and outcry, and a scene of human passion such 
as I had never conceived before." '" 

The all-day meetings draw attendants from even the sur- 
rounding counties and a dinner is spread which shows ample 
provision for all. Fried chicken, roast pig, pickles, a "mess" 
of cabbage, potatoes, several kinds of bread, fruit, pies, cakes 
and other things go to make up the feast. Much happiness is 
manifest during this recess and then the afternoon service be- 
gins (juite languidly. The service is eventually over and when 
inquiries after friends and acquaintances are done, the church 
grounds are deserted until another service. The baptizing gen- 
erally takes place at the conclusion of the big meeting and ad- 
ministering of this rite is ordinarily a fitting climax to the won- 
derful outburst of religious enthusiasm. It would be impossi- 
ble to mention protracted meetings held in Virginia by Negroes 
without stating a few of the salient facts in connection with 
the great revival held in Norfolk during 1911. A Negro 



17. The Souls of Black Folk. W. K. B. Du Bois, p. 190. 



RELir.ioi's i>!:\'i:i.()i'Mi:\T (>!• niiv m:c,ko 167 

preacher named V. \\. Williams, pastor of the Queen vSt. Bap- 
tist Church, had a "vision from Ood" on Xew \' ear's Day. aiid 
a simultaneous revival l)e<;an in several of the Nef2:ro einn-i-hes 
in March. It so ha])i>eiie(l ihal Rev. Dr. C. ^. .Morris, a dis- 
tinq;uished Negro from the North, came to \'iri,nnia at this 
strategic moment and immediately hecame the man of the hour. 
The ten weeks revival was greatest at his church. One night 
296 Negroes were converted; another 211 ; another 111 and as 
many as 50 or more a night were not uncommon. Negro dance 
halls that ditl a three hundred dollar husiness each night re- 
corded only five dollars, saloons were practically empty, gam- 
hling was checked, the police court had no Negroes on the 
docket; "Big Hughsie," one of the l)lack gamhling leaders, \vas 
converted and urged all those whom he had taught to gamhle 
to raise their hands ; at least a hundred hands were raised. 
This man was arrested the same night for praising God on the 
streets, hut was later bailed out ; the American Tobacco Com- 
pany had to lay oft" its hands because of the religious frenzy; 
the Farmers Manufacturing Company had a similar experi- 
ence ; everywhere from kitchens to wharves the influence of 
this meeting was felt. It was practically a singing revival. 
Thousands of whites gathered to hear the music. "He loved me 
so" and "I love Him" to the tune of "Old Black Joe," were the 
greatest favorites. None hut sinners were allowed in the body 
of the church and these were converted to the number of 1,500 
or 2,000. The revival did much good in Norfolk, and brought 
to light the fact that the Negroes have an exce])tionally effi- 
cient leader who sutlers no compromise with evil himself and 
is especially powerful in securing the co-operation of the white 
ministers of Norfolk. ^"^ 

The local associations and the State conventions are well- 
attended as a rule, and many visitors are in evidence. The 
Negro preachers are usually dressed their best and the church 
that entertains them is prepared for a great event. .Many of 
the Negroes in attendance speak and many special sermons are 
provided for on the program. Debate often waxes warm, and 



18. For further details sec Norfolk Public Lcd'^cr, April 21, I'Jll, 
et passim. 



168 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

the conventions are usually well-conducted and handle business 
as expeditiously as could be expected. During a convention 
held recently in August an address of welcome read by Sister 
Lula R. "offered the Association first of all the Church, then 
extended this offer to the homes, tables and still further for 
feather beds which things have always and everywhere ap- 
pealed to ministerial dignity." And all of these things were 
duly enjoyed by tlie Convention, too. 

We have said in our preface that many letters had been sent 
to various individuals in diff'erent parts of this State. These 
letters were sent for the purpose of collecting data on certain 
phases of our subject. P'acts are fundamentally important for 
history ; yet the facts are rarely so influential as what men 
believe about those facts. What the Negro is and what peo- 
ple think about him may be very diff'erent, yet what the people 
think will be the thing of inestimable importance in influencing 
our attitude towards the Negro. We have striven to learn 
what many kinds of people in many kinds of places in this 
Commonwealth thought on certain matters pertinent to the 
question. To the white citizens we wrote the following sched- 
ule of Questions : 

1. 1. Is the moral condition of the Negro improving or not? 

2. Are the Negro ministers in your community good or bad 
men ? Name two or more virtues or vices. 

3. What do you think of the religious life of the Negro? 

4. How can the Negro Church be bettered? 

5. To what extent have Negro preachers mixed in politics 
in the past? Are they influential now? 

To the Negro preachers this schedule of questions was sent: 

II. 1. Are your members active in the church? Give per- 
centage. 

2. Does your church encourage domestic science, normal 
training? 

3. What is the influence of the exhorters and leading mem- 
bers? 

4. Do people shout in your clmrch ? Do you oppose it ? 

5. Name three favorite hymns. 



RKi.K'.iors i>i:\i:i.(»i'Mi:xT oi- I'lii': ni:c.ko 109 

6. \\h;il arc your greatest (liniculties in cluirch work? 

7. Suggestions for bettering the Xegro church. 

The Negro laymen were requesteil to an.swcr the following 
schedule of (juestions : 

IIT. 1. What is the condition of the Negro churches in your 
comnuniity ? 

2. Are your ministers good men? Name virtues or vices. 

3. Are the young people interested? Is your Sunday-school 
growing ? 

4. Do you think sexual immorality is increasing or decreas- 
ing? 

5. Name some of your churches' charitable works. 

6. Name three favorite hymns. 

7. TIow can you better your churches? 

We were sure before we sent out a single (|uestion that the 
results to be obtained from these letters were not to be strictly 
reliable. In the first place, men are prone to be very charitable 
when they write out answers to such questions, far preferring 
to err on the side of charity than run the risk of being con- 
sidered prejudiced. In the next place, men of vastly different 
aees received these letters and the age of a man is generally 
indicative of his answer when it concerns the Negro question. 
In the last place, all the tjuestions sent out to the Negroes were 
sent to the best educated Negroes, usually college Negroes, be- 
cause we were unable to obtain the names or receive written 
answers from illiterate Negroes.^ ^ 

Several of these questions received such uniform answers as 
to make discussion of them unnecessary, but we shall consider 
them seriatim to prevent confusion. Schedule I. question one, 
received 152 answers indicating that the Negro life is improv- 
ing morally, 89 answers that it is not improving morally, and 
ten answers that indicate uncertainty. Where there were few 
Negroes, or near their schools, the answers showed improvements, 



19. It must be borne in mind, however, that we held many conver- 
sations with illiterate Negroes in order that their view-point would 
not be overlooked in this study. 



170 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

but where Negroes lived to themselves mainly as in the black 
counties the answers indicated no progress. Nearly every doc- 
tor expressed his belief that they w^ere not improving, but this 
was what was to be expected from this profession which deals 
almost entirely with their ills. 

Schedule I, question two, received a majority of answers in- 
dicating that the Negro ministers were good men and were 
above the average of their race. It is not likely that unani- 
mous approval would be given even to white preachers. Among 
the virtues or vices shown in the letters, honesty, sobriety, in- 
dustry, promoters of better understanding between the races, 
quietness, respectfulness, and charity of one class of preachers, 
vie with drunkenness, sexual looseness, dishonesty, ignorance, 
stealing, fomenting racial unrest and disregard of obligations 
of the others. It is to be hoped that these criticisms will renew 
the zeal of the good and correct some of the faults of the bad 
religious leaders. 

Schedule I, question three, found a Ijig majority of the 
white people without faith in the religious life of the Negro. 
Such expressions as the following are characteristic of the an- 
swers : "too emotional," "form only," "have little idea what 
religion is," "do not think religion has much hold on the race," 
"an inlet for good, an outlet for emotion, a field for activit}^" 
"spectacular," "religion only on Sunday," "comes by spells," 
"outward profession instead of upright lives," "unknown quan- 
tity," "little benefit," "spasmodic," "not rational," "do not fully 
appreciate what true religion is," "little religion other than 
what is shown," "mostly superficial, emotional and borders on 
superstition," "better what they have than none at all." In 
spite of the overwhelming majority of answers indicating a 
low opinion of the religious life of Negroes, some declare that 
they believed that the Negroes' religious life was showing im- 
provement, while others were frank to confess that they did 
not know. 

Scliedule I, question four. This question gave opportunity 
for a wide expression of opinion and this opportunity was cer- 
tainly grasped. A ])lurality of answers suggested l)etter edu- 
cation for the ministry and better education for the pews. 



Ri-ijcioi's i)i;\i:i.()i'.Mi;\T OF riii: .m'cko 171 

While next to education the answers sliowed that some form 
of co-operation or su])cr\ision on the pari of the whites would 
be the best way to effect the laudable end of bettering the N*e- 
gro chnrcli. b'ewcr answers were received to this question than 
to any other; which would seem to indicate that constructive 
work was not so po])ular as the destructive or laudatory. "Too 
deep for me.'" "can't answer this," "cannot say how," "can 
make no suggestion at present" and many blank si)aces show 
further that this matter has not been considered imj^ortant 
enough for some to form any opinion concerning it. 

Schedule 1. ([ucslion five. It received an almost unanimous 
answer. It was agreed that the Negro had been influential in 
politics before the Constitutional Convention of 1901-02 dis- 
enfranchised ])racticall}- every individual of the race, but since 
then the Negro has not counted in politics. We have shown 
exceptions in "wet" and "dry" elections and in cases of a close 
vote. 

In schedule II the Negro preachers showed a commendable 
spirit in answering the questions. Some of them were afraid 
to answer but most of them showed great consideration. The 
result of these answers we shall now present. 

Schedule II, question one. By com])uting the percentage 
from the figures sent to us we find that the Negro preachers 
consider 56^f of their members active. Some abnormal con- 
ditions raise the figures to this large number. For instance, 
some of the Episcopal churches report as high as PS*"/^ of their 
members active. The Presbyterian churches also show a large 
percentage of active members, while some of the large Baptist 
churches show only 25. 33, and 40 per cent. Perhaps if returns 
were had from all the churches in the State the average would 
be found somewhere near 40 j^er cent. 

Schedule II, ({uestion two. Without exception the Negro 
preacher declared themselves in favor of training their race in 
domestic science, and conducting normal training classes for 
the Bible school work and day school. Many of them indicate 
that their congregations are largely comjwsed of "peojile in 
service" and these are especially interested in these splendid 
educational features. 



172 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THIv NEGRO 

Schedule II, question three. The exhorters are considered 
helpful by 90^/c of the preachers and they are commended for 
their excellent lives. The remaining ten per cent declare that 
the exhorters are ignorant, immoral and in the way of prog- 
ress. It seems that the young college graduate finds it espe- 
cially difficult to change the old-style manner of worship because 
of these "big" members. In some of the churches in which 
ignorance is rampant the exhorters negative with their lives all 
that they proclaim with their lips. 

Schedule II, question four. About seventy-five per cent of 
the answers to this question state that the worshippers do shout 
and about fifty per cent of the preachers oppose shouting. 
Those ministers who do not oppose it consider the shouting 
splendid when it is "real" or "prompted by the Spirit," and the 
hearers "touched by the word of God" and "enthusiastic in 
religion." Not all of the churches olTer much temptation to 
their members to shout, and the less temptation ofifered the bet- 
ter. We have seen that the whites criticize the Negro religion 
especially for its emotionalism ; we have seen that the whites 
shouted, too, in the past, and a few do yet. The sooner the 
Negroes cease making their worship a spectacle the better for 
the race. A well-trained minister will solve this problem of 
shouting. 

Schedule II, question five. Much to our surprise none of 
the old "spirituals" were mentioned in the list of three favorite 
songs. Of the favorite hymns submitted, the first seven in the 
order of their popularity are : "Am I a Soldier of the Cross,"' 
"Amazing Grace," "Nearer My God to Thee," "A Charge to 
Keep I Have," "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood," "Come 
Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove," and "All Hail the Power of 
Jesus' Name." 

Schedule II, question six. The fundamental trouble in 
church work according to a great majority of the Negro preach- 
ers is the matter of properly financing the activities, or as one 
l)reacher said, "to get my ])eople to understand that God has 
a claim on our pocket-book." "Lack of promptness on the part 
of members attending churches," "settling grievances between 
members," "backsliding," "unavailing efi^orts to get young peo- 



KI'T.ir.Iiirs Dl'X'I'l.ol'Ml-XT (»!■ Till': M'CUO 173 

])le interested." "(lirtieully in reachins^" men," "alcoholic li(|noi"s," 
"superstition," "lack of harmony," "kee])in<j^ officers active and 
making' them ])rogressive," "want ot C'hristian zeal" and m;mv 
Other tilings are considered the greatest difficulties hy dillerent 
preachers. There arc nndouhicdly difficulties enough, l)Ut the 
statement of the problems should he of some advantage in at- 
tempting a solution. 

Schedule II, (|Ucstion seven. The universal suggestion of- 
fered for bettering the churches is a better trained ministry. 
"Good Sunday-school teachers," "better choirs," "more intelli- 
gent laity," "less superhciality and more Christianity, seasoned 
highly with thrift, honesty, veracity and sobriety," "emphasis 
on practical side of life," "practical athletic Christianity," 
"closer touch with white people," "stimulating young people,*' 
"clubs to do civic work," "not so much stress on buildings and 
more on Christian love" are samples of the suggestions offered 
by the Negro jireachers. It is to be hoped that some of these 
suggestions will be adopted and the Negro chinvli l)ettered 
thereby. 

Schedule three was sent to the Negro laymen. Their an- 
swers are i)ractical and reflect much credit upon those who 
answered. 

Schedule III, question one. Only ten per cent of the answers 
found fault with the conditions of their churches. Many were 
enthusiastic in sounding the praises of their organizations. The 
overwhelming loyal sentiment of the Negroes to their churches 
is here shown to l)e operative. 

Schedule 111, (luestion two. Eighty-eight per cent of the 
answers indicate that the Negro preachers are good men but 
others declare that not all are good. The Negro laymen find 
faults in the good ones and some virtues in the bad ones. On 
such points their answers are especially valuable. "Profligates 
and libertines," "after money," "care nothing about uplift 
work," "keep the people ignorant" and "opposed to internal 
iiuprovement of the people" are some of the indictments 
brought against the Negro preachers hy the minority who an- 
swered. The majority said that their preachers possessed 
among others the following virtues : "have higher ideals than 



174 ri:lic.ious de:ve;lopment of the: negro 

formerly," "are good, patient, earnest, self-denying men," "good 
will and respect of the white citizens generally," "sober," 
"chaste and honest," "good leaders," etc. 

Schedule III, question three. Sixty-six per cent of the an- 
swers, concerning the interest of the young people and the 
growtii of Sunday-schools, affirm that the young people are 
interested and the Sunday-schools steadily growing. Much 
concern is shown because the older people pay little attention 
to the Sunday-school. 

Schedule III, question four. Over ninety per cent of the 
answers concerning sexual immorality show that it is decreas- 
ing. The Negro's opinion concerning this matter and the white 
man's are entirely different. A better day is in store for the 
Negro when he becomes ashamed of his excesses, and only 
when that day arrives need we expect any confidence to be 
shown in the Negro's religion by the white men. The Negroes 
were much imposed upon during slavery, but this excuse will 
not always serve to cover a multitude of sins. 

Schedule III, question live. Missionary funds, old folks' 
homes, orphan asylums, literary funds, educational institutions, 
"poor saints" and the education of ministerial students are the 
foremost charities which engage the attention of the Negro 
church members. Many of the Negro worshippers have little 
themselves and the large amounts which they give for charit- 
able purposes are all the more remarkable in the light of tlieir 
economic standing. 

Schedule III, question six. This question was answered by 
the laymen exactly as the preachers answered it. See Schedule 
II. (|uestion five. 

Schedule III, question seven. Fully answered in Sched- 
ule II, question seven. The laymen lay less stress on the need 
of the minister, but in all other points in agreement. 

Public sentiment is certainly valuable, and we cannot l)e 
other than exceedingly grateful to the many people who sacri- 
ficed time and thought to these problems. It would have been 
next to impossible to write concerning the Negro without the 
contributory evidence sent to* us in answer to the above sched- 



RI-:i.lC>l(^US l)T"Vl':i,(M'Mi:.\T or Tin: XKC.RO 175 

ule of (juestions. This information was not doled out to us 
in bits or fragments but busy men wrote five, six and seven 
pages to give the reqtiested opinions. 

The much mooted question of the relative religious status 
of the ante-bellum Negro and the modern Negro can hardly 
be discussed yet because of the lack of an unprejudiced jury. 
Men show doubt concerning many things when discussing the 
Negro question, but no one speaks in uncertain tones when 
this particular matter is broached. We have never yet seen a 
Southern white man over sixty years of age who believed that 
the modern Negro was worthy even to stoop down and un- 
loose the latchet of the shoes of a good "old time darkey." We 
have never seen a venerable slave Negro who did not look with 
some disdain upon the "new fangled" notions introduced into 
the churches by the "young set" whom they seem to regard 
very often as vulgar upstarts. We have never seen a young, 
educated Negro who failed to impress us with a feeling that 
he believed that the old Negroes who advocated the hallelujah 
type of religion were after all more to be pitied than blamed. 
Exceptions to these observations undoubtedly exist, but the 
general rules will not be disturbed. The highest tenth among 
the modern Negroes is perhaps higher than the highest tenth 
was among the slave Negroes, and the lowest tenth among the 
modern Negroes is probably lower than the lowest tenth in 
slavery days.-" In fact, after all authorities have written pro 
and con. the only course which one can i)ursue is to state one's 
personal judgment and endeavor to weigh down the almost 
evenly l)alanced scale with it. 

The Negro has excellent prospects for his future ; it is im- 
possible to argue that his future is behind him. He has ex- 
hibited in recent years too many improvements to give counte- 
nance to the theory that he is progressing backward instead of 
forward. In spite of the great effort jnit forth by many char- 
itable white people of the South ; in spite of the almost parental 
care shown by many masters; in spite of the interest in the 
Negro's religious welfare, we are compelled to believe that the 



20. Eiicyclnpc'edia Britannica, Article on Negro, Eleventh Edition. 



176 RELIGIOUS DltVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

proportion of religious Negroes now, who live exemplary lives 
is as great as that attained at any time during slavery. Seeing 
frequently depends upon what we are looking for. In slavery 
days Southern men's eyes were strained to see the good in their 
servants ; now, some eyes are willing to see only the bad. We 
must remember that the Negro was probably at his worst about 
1890, one generation after his release from slavery. In dis- 
regarding the Southern whites immediately after the War he 
sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. Their fathers ate 
sour grapes and the children's teeth were set on edge. It is 
true that many good individuals arose during slavery and are 
now called blessed; it is true that the Negro was protected then 
from the evils of intemperance ; it is undeniable that church 
services and Sunday-schools held for Negroes did nobly in be- 
half of the racial uplift, yet the great work of that day was 
that of laying the foundation for the greater work of their 
future — and our present. Many modern Negroes have proved 
themselves unworthy to be recipients of so many Christian 
labors, but many more have shown by their deeds that not one 
iota of the Christian labors expended on them has been mis- 
placed. The history of our Commonwealth is already replete 
with the stories of noble deeds and substantial progress, but if 
some future historian can confirm our judgment that the re- 
ligious development of the Negro in Virginia showed marked 
advances even in the period since slavery, we shall be more than 
happy in the knowledge that the task of our forefathers did 
not fall upon unworthy shoulders. 



RI-XIGIOUS DEVIvLOPMKNT OF TIIIv XltCRO 177 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

The authorities given in this list are primary and hy no means 
include the greater mass of material which is considered sec- 
ondary. This Bibliography does not pretend to be a complete 
bibliography on the Negro question, but includes only those 
records used in the preparation of the foregoing study. 

Manuscript. 

A. County Court Records — Orders, Deeds, Wills, Inven- 

tories, etc., certified copies transcribed from the orig- 
inal records in jnirsuance of an act of the Virginia 
State Legislature and preserved in the Virginia State 
Library in Richmond, Va. : 
York County. 
Henrico County. 

B. County Court Records, — Orders, Deeds, Wills, etc., 

originals. 

Northampton County at Eastville, Va. 

C. Parish Records. 

In Bruton Church, Williamsburg, Virginia: 
Register of Middletown and Bruton Parishes, 1662- 
1797. 

At Library of William and Mary College, Williams- 
burg, Va. 

Register of Abingdon Parish, transcribed by Dr. Lyon 
G. Tyler. 

D. Records of Friends' Meetings at Park Avenue Meet- 

ing House, Baltimore, Maryland. 

]\Iinutes of Warrenton and Fairfax Quarterly Meet- 
ing, 1776-1787. 

Minutes of Warrenton and Fairfax Quarterly Meet- 
ing of Women Friends, 1775-89. 

^Minutes of Warrenton Quarterly Meeting, 1787-1801. 

Minutes of Fairfax Quarterly Meeting, 1787-1850. 

—12 



178 RELIGIOUS de;vklopment of the negro 

Minutes of Crooked Run Monthly Meeting, 1782- 

1789. 
Minutes of Fairfax Monthly Meeting: 1, 1759-1777; 

2, 1777-1791; 3, 1791-1811; 4, 1811-1851. 
Minutes of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, 1785-1818; 

1818-18—. 

E. Records of the General Court of Virginia, transcribed 
by Conway Robinson, 1640-1661, 1670-1676. Va. Hist. 
Society. 

F. Legislative Petitions of Virginia, 1776-1860. 

These petitions constitute virgin soil for the historian. The acts 
of the Assembly were powerfully influenced by the presentation 
of a petition praying that certain things be done or certain nui- 
sances be abated. The petitions were valuable in that they let 
the representatives in the legislature know what their constitu- 
ents wanted. The more honorable the citizens signing such pe- 
titions, the more likelihood of their wishes being granted. Sev- 
eral thousand of these petitions are preserved in the Depart- 
ment of Archives of the State Library at Richmond, Va. The 
counties from Accomac to Orange are catalogued in upright 
filing cases ; each petition in a separate, stiff paper folder. 

G. Transcripts from original papers in the British Public 
Record Office, London. By Angus W. MacDonald, 7 vols., 
1619-1695 ; containing abstracts or complete transcripts of 581 
documents relating to the settlement and early history of Vir- 
ginia. By William Noel Sainsbury, 20 vols. 1606-1740; con- 
taining abstracts of 5108 documents relating to early Virginia 
history. Va. State Library. 

Laws of Virginia. 

1. Statutes at Large of Virginia, 13 vols. 1619-1672. Wil- 
liam Waller Hening. Richmond, 1819, 1820. 

2. Statutes at Large of Virginia, 3 vols. 1792-1807. Samuel 
Sheppard, Richmond, 1835-1836. 

3. Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1807-1865. 

4. Codes of Virginia. 



RKLICIOl'S DKVICI.OI'MKNT OI" III I* M'CRO 179 

PUHLIC DoCL'MKNTS. 

1. Journals of the House of Rurjj^esses, 1727-1776, <S vols. 
Ed. H. R. Mcllwaine, 1905-10. 

2. journals of the House of Delegates, 1776-1865. Rich- 
mond. 

3. Journals of the Senate of Virginia. 1778-1865. 

4. Documents of the House of Delegates, containing the 
messages of the Governors to the General Assemblies and an- 
nual reports of the public officers of the State, and of boards 
of directors, visitors, superintendents, and other supervisors of 
public institutions in Virginia. 1814-1865. 

5. U. S. Census Volumes, 1860, 1890, 1906. 

Encyclop.tvdia.'^ and Directories, Magazines and Minutes, 

Newspapers. 

I. Encycloptnedias and Directories. 

A. Encyclopciedias. 

1. Encyclopccdia Brittanica. 

2. American Annual Encyclopaedia. 

B. Directories. 

1. Norfolk. 

2. Richmond. 

n. Magazines and Minutes. 

A. Magazines. 

1. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 

2. William and Mary Quarterly. 

3. Missionary Review of the World. 

4. Popular Science Monthly. 

5. Southern Magazine. 

6. Educational Review. 

7. Methodist Quarterly Review. 

8. Religious Herald. 

9. Princeton Review. 

10. Southern Workman. 

11. Sunday-School Times. 

12. Christian Monthly. 



180 RELIGIOUS de:ve;.i,opment of thiv negro 

B. Minutes. 

1. Yearly Minutes of Virginia Baptist General Asso- 

ciation (white). 

2. Yearly Minutes of Virginia Baptist State Associa- 

tion (negro). 

3. American Baptist Year Book. 

III. Newspapers. 

1. The Recorder, Richmond. 1802-1803. 

2. The Enquirer, 1804-1864. 

3. The Whig, Richmond. 

4. Richmond Times-Dispatch. 

5. The Public Ledger, Norfolk. 

6. The Ledger-Dispatch, Norfolk. 

7. The Virginian-Pilot and Norfolk Landmark, Nor- 

folk. 

Published Parish Records and Local Histories. 
L Parish Records. 

1. Burton, Rev. L. W. History Henrico Parish and St. John's 
Church. Edited and Compiled by J. Staunton Moore, Rich- 
mond, Va. 1904. 

2. The Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex 
County, Virginia, from 1653 to 1812. Published by the Na- 
tional Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State 
of Virginia. Richmond, 1897. 

3. Register of St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County, Vir- 
ginia, 1685-1787. Published by the National Society of the 
Colonial Dames of America in the State of Virginia. Rich- 
mond, 1904. 

4. Slaughter, Rev. Philij). A History of Bristol Parish, Va. 
Richmond, 1879. 

5. C.oodwin, Rev. W. A. R., Historical Sketcli of Bruton 
Church, Williamsburg, Virginia. Williamsburg, 1903. 

H. Local Histories. 

1. l)u ]>ois, W. E. B. The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia, 
A Social Study. In U. S. Bureau of Labor. Bulletin No. 14. 
Jan. 1898; pp.' 1-38. 



Rl^IJCIorS DI'NI'r.OI'MI-XT OI* Till': XI'CRO IS] 

2. Forrest, William S. Ilislorical and Descriptive Sketches 
of Norfolk and X'icinity. J 'liiladelphia, 1853. 

3. Lossing, l>enson, J. The Home of Washington and Its 
Association. New York. 1866. 

4. Peyton, John Lewis. History of Augusta County, Va. 
Staunton. 1882. 

5. Wise, Jennings Cro])i)er. Ye Kingdome of Accawmacke ; 
or, The Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, 
Rich. 1911. 

6. Woods, Rev. Edgar. Albemarle County in Virginia, giv- 
ing some account of what it was by nature, of what it was 
made by man, and of some of the men who made it. Char- 
lottesville, 1901. 

Books and Pamphlkts. 

1. Adams, Nehemiah. A South-Side View of Slavery; or. 
Three Months at the South in 1854. Boston, 1854. 

This book created great interest in the South since it came 
from the pen of a Northern man and substantiated the position 
held by Southerners concerning slavery. The facts cited are 
given as real observations and indicate that none of the atroci- 
ties were commonly practiced upon the Negroes as some had 
represented. The South found great satisfaction in this book 
and the anti-slavery people much chagrin. 

2. Armstrong, M. F. and Ludlow, Helen W. Hampton and 
Its Students. New York, 1874. 

This volume is made up of a number of things. The early 
history of the School, stories concerning Negroes, results of 
the work done, buildings, and a section of 85 pages of music 
are some of the more important features of this book. It is a 
sympathetic view of Hampton and the Negro which is here 
presented. 

3. Asbury, Francis. Journal of. 3 vols. New York. 1852. 
This Methodist Bishop did eminent service for his church 

when the Methodists were merely gaining a foothold on this 
continent. His observations concerning the people and con- 
ditions are made on the spot and prove the Bishop to be a keen 



182 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

stve7''' ^'^' "''"^' '''^''' Englishmen he was opposed to 

• 4. Atlanta University Publications. Edited by W E B 

Du Bois. ■ ^- ±j. 

No. 8. The Negro Church. 

No. 9. Notes on Negro Crime. 

No. 13. The Negro American Family. 
These studies are parts of a series which aims to cover the 
Negro question every decade. The works are very valuable 
as sources of information. • They are ably edited and have 
many contributors. 

5. Ballagh, J. C. History of Slavery in Virginia. Johns 
Hopkms University Studies. Extra vol., No. 24. Baltimore, 

The masterful treatment of his subject bv the author is in 
eiatire accord with the splendid work done 'at Johns Hopkins 
i he field was immense and necessarily some matters were 
touched lightly. In his fine understanding of the laws concern- 
ing slavery, and m his fruitful suggestion concerning the status 
of the first Negroes imported, Dr. Ballagh has shown himself 
well qualified for the work of a historian. His book is filled 
with interesting facts. 

6. Barringer, P. B. The American Negro; His Past and 
Future. Charlotte, N. C. 1900. 

Dr. Barringer has little belief in the education of the Ne-ro 
He picks out much of the worst of the Negro's past and lias 
httle or no confidence in the Negro's future. The pamphlet 
IS interesting as an anti-Negro tract, but shows no appreciation 
ot the later developments of the race. 

7. Bassett, John Spencer. The Constitutional Beginnino- of 
North Carolina. Johns Hopkins University Studies. Twelfth 
Series VH, Bait. 1894. 

Dr. Bassett's work is one of those studies which do so much 
to help the history of a State. He throws light on matters that 
would otiierwise be overlooked. The statements in his w(ark 
are well authenticated by good authorities. His work touches 
the Negro problem in few places. 



Ki-.i.ic.ioi's i)i;\i;i,i)1'.mi;nt oi* iiiiv xiicko 1S.> 

r 

8. Ringa, A. Jr. Binga's Addresses on Several ( )ocasions. 
Reforms in Negro Church Worship. 

This address was delivered before the Social Study Club of 
the Virginia Union University, Richmond. \':\. The Rev. 
I^inSfa is a Canadian bv birth but has done much for the ad- 
vancement of his fellow-Negroes in the State of his adoption, 
\'irginia. This address shows tliat the better Negroes realize 
the weaknesses found in their churches and are making efforts 
to eradicate the evils. Valuable for its suggestions. 

9. Blair, Lewis H. The Prosperity of the South Dependent 
upon the Elevation of the Negro. Richmond, 1889. 

This work is highly laudatory of the Negro. The writer has 
some reputation as a pamjihleteer. The economic argumeitt is 
now accepted by the best Southern Whites, but all whites are 
wary of the social equality elevation. Mr. Blair points out 
some radical courses and makes some dire promises in case the 
Negro is not elevated. 

10. Blyden, E. W. Christianity. Islam and the Negro Race. 

This man went to Africa as a missionary and places the Ne- 
gro on high ground in his writings. There is something ora- 
torical in his style. The book is made up of a series of essays 
which are thoroughly readable. They burn with devotion to the 
race and show that the author has had a wide field ujion which 
to base his observations. 

11. Bosnian, J. Description of the Coast of Ouinea. 1705. 
The author of this book paints a very gloomy picture of 

Guinea. There was evidently much to justify his painting. 
His statement of marital conditions and the laxness of morals 
is especially trenchant. Many phases of the Negro's life are 
covered in the same manner. 

12. Bouldin, Powhatan. Home Reminiscences of John Ran- 
dolph of Roanoke. Richmond, 1878. 

The writer of this book is an able man and his equipment 
for the task of collecting interesting facts concerning John 
Randolph was excellent. He has a charming style and nar- 
rates facts laughable and serious with ecjual facility. It is en- 
tirely probable that some of his stories may have suft'ered by 



184 RELIGIOUS DE^VELOPMENT OE THE NEGRO 

rough handling since Randolpli or someone else spoke them, 
yet his facts concerning Randolph's life are thoroughly reli- 
able. The volume makes delightful reading matter. 

13. Bruce, P. A. Economic History of Virginia. 2 vols. 
N. Y. 1896. 

This work is one of the finest pieces of history writing ever 
done in Virginia. The book is so filled with details as to make 
it heavy reading for any but students. Facts are piled upon 
facts until the least shadow of doubt concerning the author's 
opinion must disappear. The whole effect of the work is splen- 
did. Money conditions, labor, contracts, and many other mat- 
ters are ably handled. 

14. Bruce, P. A. Institutional History of Seventeenth Cen- 
tury. 2 vols. New York, 1910. 

These volumes are invaluable to a student of events during 
the Seventeenth Century. The author was splendidly equipped 
for writing history and worked prodigiously. The books are 
literally loaded with facts. So thoroughly and accurately were 
his books written that we dare say they are worthy to be used 
as sources. His handling of the clergy, church and courts is 
especially fine. 

15. Bruce, P. A. The Plantation Negro as a Freedman. 
New York, 1889. 

The style of writing seen in this volume is entirely different 
from the volumes above. The short sentences of the books 
above are not seen in this work. The long, sonorous, sentences 
with their oratorical sweep are now seen. The style is sus- 
tained ; the subject matter intensely interesting. Many valu- 
able lights are shed on the Negro problem by this book, since 
the author is an accurate observer who saw conditions before 
and after. The Modern Negro suff'ers by his comparison. 

16. Burgess, John W. The Middle Period. 1817-1858. 
New York, 1910. 

Dr. Burgess is a text-book writer of note. He has implicit 
confidence in himself and "sound doctrine" usually means his 
own interpretations of events. He is very fair in dealing with 
the subject of Negroes, and is one of the historians (now more 



RELIGIOUS DEVKl.dl'MI-.NT oF Tlllv N'KCKO 185 

numerous) who can see the evil in men hke Inhn I'.rown and 
Xat. Turner. Tliongli he is a Northern writer, the v^outli does 
not sutler at liis hands when he (hsensses slavery. 

17. Butt, Israel L. History of African Methodism in \ir- 
ginia or Four Decades in the Old Dominion. Hampton, HX)8. 

The Negro writer of this book is an aspiring black man. ! le 
has been championing the cause of his race for years. His 
part in the A. M. E. Church in Virginia is conspicuous for 
good. The book is mainly made up of A. M. K. Virginia Con- 
vention Minutes which speak volumes for the betterment of 
conditions among the leaders. 

18. Campbell, Sir George. White and Black in the United 
States. New York, 1879. 

A good book of travels. The author was an Englishman and 
had ideas of pure democracy when color-line matters arose. 
His ignorance of the Negro problem was shared by many of his 
countrymen. 

19. Castleman, T. T. Plain Sermons for Servants. New 
York, 1853. 

One of the excellent books of sermons published for masters 
to read to their servants. The writer was an Episcopal clergy- 
man and turned out a valuable book. Its messages would still 
be beneficial if read to Negroes. 

20. Clayton, Victoria V. \Miite and Black under the Old 
Regime. Milwaukee, 1899. 

Mrs. Clayton presided over a splendid Alabama home. Her 
duties as mistress on the great ])lantation included oversight of 
tile religious exercises of the Negroes. She, like many Vir- 
ginia ladies, felt that this task was sacred and she performed it 
with great care. Much of the best side of slavery can be seen 
from a casual reading of this volume. 

21. Coke, Thomas. Extracts of the Journals of the late Rev. 
Thomas Coke, LL. D. ; comprising several visits to North 
America and the West Indies, etc. London, 1793. Dublin, 
1816. 

This Metliodist Pioneer visited Virginia frequently and bore 



186 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

testimony against slavery. He was an imported Bishop. Rev. 
Devereux Jarratt aroused his ire especially. Bishop Coke 
preached to Negroes frequently and his influence must have 
been in favor of better conditions for Negroes. He makes 
many notes concerning people and things of his time which 
now prove interesting. 

22. Cooke, John Esten. American Commonwealth Histories 
— Virginia. Boston, 1883. 

This volume is written in a pleasing style but is not strictly 
accurate. The author believed too much. The historical dis- 
coveries of recent years have proved that some of the material 
accepted by Cooke is not now to be accepted as true. The 
arrangement of the subject matter is excellent. 

23. Cooke, John Esten. Stonewall Jackson. A Military 
Biography. With an Appendix by J. Wm. Jones. New York, 
1876. 

An excellent book from a literary standpoint. It does not 
receive the respect in the military world accorded the valuable 
treatise by the English ofificer, Henderson. Rev. J. Wm. Jones 
has appended some valuable anecdotes and has given some in- 
sight into the private character of the great general. 

24. Dabney, Robert L. A Defence of Virginia (and through 
her of the South), in Recent and Pending Contests against the 
Sectional Party. New York, 1867. 

A standard apology for slavery. This book blinded the eyes 
of many to any good thing in the emancipated Negroes. It is 
a philosophic treatise as well as a hard, practical argument. 
The chapter dealing with the ethical aspect of slavery was of 
particular service in our study. 

25. Davies, Samuel. Letters from [him] and Others ; shew- 
ing the State of RELIGION in Virginia, South Carolina, &c. 
PARTICULARLY among the Negroes. London, 1761. 

A small number of very valuable communications from Pres- 
byterian preachers in Virginia to two gentlemen in London. 
A great desire for books on the part of the Negroes of Vir- 
ginia is herein shown ; also some account of the progress of the 
Gospel among the blacks. 



RRLIGIOUS ORVRLOPMENT OF TlllC Xi^C.uo {^J 

26. Davis, John. Travels of Four Years and a Half in the 
United States of America durino: 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 
1802. London. 1803. Reprint N. Y. 1909. 

One of the very best books of travel. Uavis was a writer 
of some note and his eye eagerly caught the picturescjue things 
His style guarantees easy reading. lie taught school for a 
short while in X'irginia and his trained mind soon saw the 
things ot interest. He did not write about a large area in Vir- 
ginia, but his work was done well. 

27. Dowd, Jerome. 'J'he Negro Races. A Sociological Study 
N. Y. 1907. 

This study is a detailed one of three African races. The 
matters coNcred by the term "A Sociological Study" are quite 
broad and varied. The family affairs there, being so different 
from ours, are matters of especial interest. Such keen anal- 
yses as the author gives of conditions serve to put knowledge 
ahead of surmise. 

28. Drewry, W. S. Slave Insurrections in \'irginia \\'ash- 
ington, 1900. 

The main body of the book deals with the Southampton In- 
surrection. The author knew the country well, walked over 
the ground, photographed places described in his narrative and 
gives a thoroughly readable account of the plot and partici- 
pants. He does not attempt to do much with the consequences 
of the outbreak. 

29. Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. The Philadelphia Negro 
Phil. 1899. • 

One of the finest local studies. Du Bois was working under 
the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania and did his 
work thoroughly. His schedule of questions for investigation 
into home conditions are especially interesting. The conclu- 
sions are logical and fair and the whole work a compliment to 
its author. 

30. Du Bois. W. E. Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk 
Chicago, 1909. 

This book is frightfully pessimistic in tone. The style is 
wonderful; the language beautiful. No one can read these es- 



188 RELIGIOUS DE^VE^LOPMENT OF THE) NEGRO 

says without feeling the situation of the Negro. Facts of his- 
tory are not accurately stated hut perhaps the author sacrificed 
history for the music of his words. 

31. Du Chaillu, Paul. Explorations and Adventures in 
Equatorial Africa. New York, 1868. 

Du Chaillu's expeditions are replete with stirring incidents. 
The ideas of the natives, their general untrustworthiness, the 
fidelity of some, their hospitality or lack of it, their modes of 
living and ceremonies at their burials are narrated. It is not 
considered such a valuable work as some of the later explora- 
tion trips. 

32. Edmundson, William. Life, Journey, Suffering, etc., of. 
London, 1774. 

The life of this pioneer Quaker shows him to be an intrepid 
character. His journeys were many and long, and his suffer- 
ings intense. The work is interesting to those who are study- 
ing religiovis pioneers and the causes they championed. Ed- 
mundson did much for the Negro. 

33. Ellis, A. B. The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold 
Coast of West Africa. London. 1887. 

34. . The Ewe-Speaking Peoples of 

the Slave Coast of West Africa. London, 1890. 

35. — — . The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples 

of the Slave Coast of West Africa. London, 1894. 

36. Ellis, A. B. A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa. 
London, 1895. 

Accurate, discriminating, detailed accounts of the peoples 
described. Ellis knows the land and the people. His account 
of their religious lives opened up to us many of the secrets 
which we could not have understood without his help. 

Z7 . Evans, Joshua. A Journal of the Life, Travels, Re- 
ligious Experiences and Labors in the Work of the Ministry. 
Philadelphia, 1837. 

A good Quaker who served faithfully. He spoke in opposi- 
tion to slavery in Virginia. His life was little dift'erent from 
that of the other pioneers. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NIvGKO 189 

38. Fithian, Philip Vickers. Journal and Letters 1767-1774. 
Tutor at Nomini Hall in Viri,nnia 1773-74. Ivlited by John 
Rogers Williams. Princeton, 1900. 

One of the most reliable accounts of things as they were in 
Virginia. The Presbyterian theologue is enchanted by the gai- 
ties of Westmoreland county life, yet feels that he must not 
give himself over to them. His opinions were anti-slavery and 
it is almost sure that the chatelaine of Nomini Hall shared his 
ideas on that subject. He points out many interesting things 
about the life of this colony that are not made clear elsewhere. 
His work was well done and deserves the high place usually 
given it because of its intimate view and manifest honesty. 

39. Fleming, W. L. Civil War and Reconstruction in Ala- 
bama. New York, 1905. 

The author of this splendid work is recognized as one of the 
foremost authorities on Reconstruction. His view is an in- 
timate one and his knowledge of details very useful in shedding 
new lights on a difficult period. The work is written in great 
fairness and is one of the valuable contributions to history in 
recent years. 

40. Foote, Wm. Henry. Sketches of Virginia, Historical 
and Biographical, Second Series. Philadelphia, 1855. 

The Sketches by the Presbyterian Foote are among the most 
important sources of Virginia history. There is a mass of ma- 
terial in them concerning prominent men who made Virginia 
what it is. He relates many minor details, and because of his 
wide interests, the Negroes found a place in his work. No one 
would think of working in Virginia history without consulting 
Foote. 

* 

41. Force, Peter. Tracts and Other Papers, Relating Prin- 
cipally to the Origin, Settlement and Progress of the Colonies 
in North America. 4 vols. Washington, 1836, 1838, 1844, 
1846. 

This collection of old materials is contained in four volumes 
published separately per dates above. Virginia has a prominent 
place in any good work dealing with all the colonies and Force's 
Tracts are not exceptions. Maryland also finds a prominent 



190 RKIJGIOUS DliVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

place. The part dealing with Virginia gives such papers as 
Virginia's Cure, Leah and Rachel and others. It is mostly 
economic in its scope. 

42. Friends, Discipline of the Yearly Meeting of. Held in 
Baltimore. Printed by direction of the meeting held in the 
year 1806. A revision 1821. Baltimore. 

The Yearly Meeting was the governing body of the Friends 
in a district covered by such meeting. The Discipline is the 
body of Church laws governing the Quakers. 

43. Godwyn, Morgan. The Negro's and Indians Advocate. 
Suing for their Admission into the Church. London, 1680. 

44. . A Supplement to the Negroes and In- 
dians Advocate ; or. Some further Considerations and proposals 
for the effectual and speedy carrying on of the Negro's Chris- 
tianity in our Plantations (notwithstanding the late pretended 
Impossibilities) without any prejudice to their Owners. Lon- 
don, 1681. 

These pamphlets are very valuable as illustrations of the 
views of some writers concerning the Negro question during 
the 17th century. The papers also show something of the re- 
ligious life of the times. The writer was a Virginia parson, 
must have known his subject matter from his owni observations, 
and wrote in an academic style. 

45. Goodell, William. The American Slave Code in Theory 
and Practice: Its distinctive features shown by its statutes, ju- 
dicial decisions, and illustrative facts. New York, 1853. 

The viewpoint of this book is that of opposition to slavery. 
A Negro who reads this book would note the many unfortunate 
conditions entailed by slavery without finding any of the com- 
pensating features of slavery mentioned. It is not an impartial 
statement of the case, but is a brief for the plaintifif without 
any consideration of the defendant's position. 

46. Harrison and Barnes. The Gospel among the Slaves. A 
Short Account of Missionary Operations among the Slaves of 
the Southern States. Nashville, Tenn., 1893. 

The title tells just what the book does. The sources of this 
book were often originals and all the matter that went into it 



RELIGIOUS 1)IvVE:L0PMENT oK Till- NlCCKO 191 

was carefully weighed. It keeps clironoloij:)- in view while stat- 
ing the subject matter forcefully. 

47. Haygood. Atticus, G. Our P.rotlicr in P.Iack. 1881. 
Our Brother in Black has become an expression freciuently on 

the lips of those favoring some adjustment of the Negro (|ues- 
tion which gives the Negro a chance. The address by Bishop 
Haygood gave the title currency and his insistent urging that 
white men share the burdens borne by the blacks has not been 
in vain. The above is filled with sane, sound advice to whites 
and blacks. 

48. Hotten, John Camden. ( )riginal Lists of Emigrants to 
the American Plantations 1600-1700. From MSS. Preserved 
in the State Paper Dept. of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, 
England. N. Y. 1874. 

The knowledge of the numbers of the first settlers can be ver- 
ified by consulting this work. The work gives the musters of 
the plantations which showed the number of Negroes present in 
the colonies in 1674-5. This book is especially valuable because 
of that census. 

49. Howison, R. R. A History of Virginia from its Discov- 
ery and Settlement by Europeans to the Present Time. 2 vols. 
Richnrd. 1848. 

These volumes are interesting and were written by a man of 
sound learning. His style of composition, however, was that in 
vogue before the war, viz. the discursive. Judged by the his- 
torical canons of the present, the work is found wanting in 
places. In olden days writers of history too frequently wrote 
down what they heard without carefully testing the truth of the 
statements recorded. 

50. Jackson, Mary Anna. Life of General Thomas J. Tack- 
son. N. Y. 1891. 

An account of the life of a man such as his wife would be ex- 
pected to write. It gives many intimate ideas of Jackson's home 
life. It does not pretend to be a military biography. Very val- 
uable for our purposes. 



192 REXIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OP THE NEGRO 

51. Jefferson, Thomas. Works. Memorial Edition. Wash- 
ington, 1903. 

The contributions of this prominent American to the history 
of our country make his writings especially valuable. His ad- 
vanced views concerning the Negro were considered radical. 
His large acquaintance with men and things and his versatility 
make his writings seem something like a source book. 

52. Jones, Hugh. The Present State of Virginia. London, 
1724. 

A very rare book which deals with economics in early Vir- 
ginia history. The descriptions deal in part with the religious 
w^elfare of the Colonists but mainly with matters which make 
for present existence. 

53. Kennard, Richard. History of the Oilfield Baptist 
Church of Petersburg, Va. 

The Negro Church described above has had a very long his- 
tory. The clerk of the church searched the old records and 
talked with old members until he gathered the materials. His 
book has no surprising features, but is a plain, unvarnished nar- 
rative of happenings in that religious body. 

54. Kingsley, Mary. Travels in West Africa. London, 1897. 

55. . West African Studies. London, 1899. 

Written in attractive style, one would hardly have to guess 
that these books were written by a woman. Miss Kingsley is an 
English lady and her contact with African life in Africa is 
charmingly embodied in her books. She writes things as she 
sees them ; not as other books see them. 

56. Lee, Elizabeth. \'irginia : Past and Present. 

Little other than a sketch of a good minister and some sug- 
gestions for helping the Negroes by taking a personal interest in 
tliem. The pamphlet is entertainingly written. 

57. Leigh, Benjamin Watkins. Virginia Slavery Debate. 
Rich. 1832. 

Nine speeches and the Letter of Appomattox to the people of 
Virg-inia are contained in this volume. The future of slavery in 



RKLIGIOUS DKYIvLOl'MlAT ()!■ Till': NEGRO 1''.^ 

Virginia was hanging in the balance while the great debate of 
1831-2 raged. This volume contains some of the best s])eeches 
and an able letter. 

58. Lyell, Charles. F. R. S. Travels in the United States 
—Second Visit. 2 vols. New York, 1868. 

The observations of a distinguished English gentleman. Ge- 
ology finds much space in his description. Some interesting ac- 
counts of persons as Englishmen saw them through the glasses 
of assumed superiority. 

59. AlcConnell, John Preston. Negroes and Their Treatment 
in Virginia from 1865 to 186;. Pulaski. Va., 1910. 

This splendid intensive study is based largely on Newspaper 
accounts during the period described. Dr. McConnell brings or- 
der out of the chaos of misinformation connected with that time. 
His directness of attack and clearness of statement cause his 
points to be concise and well-understood. 

60. McGuire, Judith W. Diary of a Southern Refugee dur- 
ing the War. New York, 1867. Richmond, Va. 1889. 

Mrs. McGuire had no idea that this diary would ever be pub- 
lished. She was a Southern lady who wrote perfectly naturally 
during the War and later resolved to allow her writings to be 
published. Sorrow is expressed at Southern defeats, joy at 
their victories ; the attempt of the people left at home to carry 
on things as they were left, is shown. 

61. AIcTyeire, H. N. History of Methodism: comprising a 
View of the Rise of this Revival of Spiritual Religion in the 
First Half of the Eighteenth Century and of the Principal 
Agents by whom it was Promoted in Europe and America ; with 
some account of the Doctrine and Policy of Episcopal Method- 
ism in the United States, and the means and manner of the Ex- 
tension down to A. D. 1884. Nashville, Tenn., 1884. 

A Southern account of the split in the Methodist Church. In- 
cidentally the emphasis is laid on work for Negroes whenever 
the opportunity affords. A valuable church history by a schol- 
arly writer and a distinguished man. 

—1.3 



194 RF.Tjr.Tors ni'Vi'LOP^rEXT o\- thk xKgro 

62. Aleade, William. Old Churches, Ministers and Families 
of Virginia. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1861. 

The knowledge of persons and events which Bishop Meade 
had mastered demanded that his works be highly esteemed. He 
was mature when the great slavery adjustment measures of 
1831-2 were being discussed, and his frequent conversations 
with people of many sorts in different parts of this Common- 
wealth gave him excellent opportunities to know public opinion. 
His work is invaluable for genealogists, church historians and 
students of the relationships betw^een church and state. These 
books are ecclesiastical histories in fact. The Bishop was al- 
most a Puritan, and his strictures were perhaps harsher than 
any arguments that the opponents of the church brought. His 
comments on the Negro are few in number, but illustrate some 
important phases of the question. 

63. . Sketches of Old Virginia Family Servants. 

Phil. 1847. 

This interesting volume was written by a granddaughter of 
General Thomas Nelson, and edited by Bishop Meade. The 
fine old Negroes described so vividly in this book serve to keep 
alive the memory of a species soon destined to become extinct. 
The author is intimately acquainted with the characters de- 
scribed. Many of the finer relationships between masters and 
servants are here narrated. 

64. Mitchell, Joseph. Missionary Pioneer — Memoir of John 
Stewart. New Vork, 1827. 

The narrative of a Virginia Negro who left this State and 
eventually worked as missionary among the Indians in ( )hio. 
No startling tales, but an account of a good life and its benefi- 
cial influences. 

65. Alontgomery Conference. Proceedings of 1900. 

A great body of distinguished Southerners gathered at Mont- 
gomery to discuss the Negro question from an unprejudiced, 
scholarly view-point. Fine suggestions were given and some 
knotty problems raised for discussion. The papers delivered 
are thoughtful and cannot be overlooked by students of the Ne- 
gro question. 



RKLIGIOl'S I)1:\'I:i,(M'MI-:NT of TIllv N'HCKO l')5 

66. Aloorlaiul, jesso \\. The Ucmaiul and tlio Supply of In- 
creased Efficiency in tlie Negro Ministry. In American Negro 
Academy Papers No. 13. 

A very timely pamphlet on a very important suhject. The 
remedies for present evils in the Negro ministry are suggested. 
The article was not intended to he historical. It is filled with 
the kind of suggestions that will solve many of the Negro's re- 
ligious problems. 

67. Munford, B. B. Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and 
Secession. New York, 1909. 

A long-looked for book. The world had heard only one side 
of the story and Col. Munford told the other. The world heard 
his story, too. The author's preparation for his work was ade- 
quate to every need. As a man prominent in Virginia affairs he 
proves the kindly interest of former prominent Virginians in 
their slaves. Col. Munford has a thesis to prove and overlooks 
the immorality curse of slavery. His book abounds in citations. 

68. Murphy, Edgar (lardner. The present South. A discus- 
sion of certain of the educational, industrial, and political issues 
in the Southern States. New York. 1904. 

No man has written with larger vision concerning the Negro 
than Edgar Gardner Murphy. His luminous sentences and clear 
thinking impress all who read his books. Mr. Murphy's inter- 
ests were cosmopolitan. Perhaps his book is the best on the 
problem which has yet appeared. 

69. Odum, Howvard W. Social and Mental Traits of the Ne- 
gro. N. Y. 1910. 

We would put few books on a level with this as a statement 
of things as they are among Negroes in the South. The author 
writes interestingly and gives more details than the ordinary 
writer gives facts. For a knowledge of actual conditions among 
the middle and lower masses this book has no equal. Jt gives 
scant acknowledgment to the better class of Negroes. 

70. Olmsted, Frederick Law. A journey in the Seaboard 
Slave States. New York, 1863. 

One of the best known books on conditions in the South prior 
to the War. Unfortunately the author was a bit biased. Cer- 



196 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

tainly he was not so biased as some other travellers, but his 
bias was all the more regrettable because of his supposed fair- 
ness. His eye saw everything it seemed. His minute account 
of the conditions among Negroes is very valuable except for tlie 
sliglit bias. 

71. Page, Thomas Nelson. The Old Dominion. Plantation 
Edition. New York, 1909. 

A thoroughly interesting collection of essays dealing with fea- 
tures of life under the old regime. Dr. Page is perfectly at 
home when writing on this subject. In none of his other 
works does he appear so intensely a Virginian and an upholder 
of Virginia's place in history. The style is that so widely 
known graceful expression characteristic of the author's works. 
This book is social history. 

72. Page, Thomas Nelson. The Negro the Southerner's 
Problem. New York, 1904. 

Dr. Page has had experiences with a splendid type of Negro 
in the times when many of the ante-bellum Negroes were the 
warm friends of their masters. In later years his point of 
contact has almost entirely disappeared and he in all probability 
saw intimately only the trifling domestics and laborers. He 
eulogizes the old-time Negro, sees little good in the present- 
day Negro and perhaps is unjustified in some of his prophecies 
w^hich indicate a distrust in the future of the Negro. This book 
is charmingly written and will fit the views of all men ac- 
quainted with the better features of the old regime. 

72>. Parsons, C. G. Inside View of Slaxery. 1855. 

This book presents a one-sided view of slavery conditions as 
seen by a man who was looking for flaws. No one could deny 
that glaring defects stood out in the system of slavery, yet it 
is unfair to present only one side of the matter. This book is 
anti-slavery. 

74. Perry, \Vm. Stevens. Historical Collections Relating to 
the American Colonial Church — Virginia. Privately printed. 
1870. 

Many historical documents are found here that are not found 
in other books. Dealings with the Bishop of London which 



RELIGIOUS 1)I:\i;L()I'MENT Ol' I' 1 1 !•; XI'.CKO 197 

are especially valuable arc found here and these throw inter- 
esting lights on the early religious situation in X'irginia. The 
correspondence with the Bishop and a few other documents 
deal with the Negro on his religious side. The value of this 
work can hardly be overestimated. 

75. Pollard, E. A. Black Diamonds ; gathered in the darkey 
homes of the South. New York, 1859. 

A book of letters supposed to have been written to a friend 
in the North. It is a thoroughly Southern view. The letters 
are well-written and give light on the problem of the health 
and housing of the Negro. The religious references note only 
the best old-time darkeys. 

76. Pulszky, Francis and Theresa. White, Red, Black — 
Sketches of American Society in the United States during the 
Visit of their Guests. New York, 1853. 

A book of travels. We know of no distinction which it could 
possibly claim. Its references to the Negro are meagre, but 
worthy of notice. Few foreigners understood the slavery cjues- 
tion as it existed in Virginia and these follow the rest in their 
prepossessions. 

77 . Quaker Pamphlets. In Park Avenue Meeting House 
Library, Baltimore, Md. 

A miscellaneous collection of pamphlets dealing with events 
in which the Quakers were prominent participants. A few 
deal with the Missionary activities among the Negroes after 
the War. 

78. Religion : A Narrative of the Revival of in Virginu' ; 
London, 1779. 

This book contains letters and especially the long letter of 
Rev. Devereux Jarratt on the above subject. It shows that 
Rev. Mr. Jarratt was a friend to the Methodists and gives an 
intimate account of the great religious awakening of 1776, as 
noted by one who was a chief participant. We learn from this 
volume that the Negro was by no means entirely neglected in 
those days. 



I'AS religious DIJVIvLOPxMENT OF TIIE; NEGRO 

79. Rochefoucault, Duke de la Liancourt. Travels Through 
the United States of North America, Canada, etc., in the Years 
1795, 1796 and 1797. 4 vols. London. 1800. 

The ohservations of a famous Frenchman in America. He 
is of the Nohility and finds many things disappointing in our 
country. His four large volumes cover many features of our 
national existence. He touches the Negro question more on 
the economic side than on any other. These hooks of travels 
are standard. 

80. Royall, Wm. L. History of Virginia's Deht Contro- 
versy, or The Negro's vicious influence in politics. Richmond, 
1897. 

The writer was a lawyer and took an active part in the 
events he descrihes. He was a man of strong prejudices, and 
Mahone and the Devil seemed to look alike in his eyes. Since 
the Negroes followed Mahone in such great numbers, we need 
not ex|)ect the Negroes to receive encomiums from him. 

81. Russell. John. The Free Negro in Virginia. 16194865. 
Johns Hopkins University Studies. Series 31. Baltimore, 
1913. 

Perhaps the most interesting dissertation in years. Dr. Rus- 
sell, although a young man. wrote with a sureness of touch 
characteristic of an older writer. He has shown complete mas- 
tery of his subject, has divided his book into suitable divisions 
and has contributed much to Virginia history. His knowledge 
of his sources was profound and his citations timely and ap- 
propriate. Indispensable to a full understanding of the Negro 
])roblem l)efore the war. Accurate and worthy of a mucli fidler 
comment. 

82. Schoepf, Johann David. Travels in the Confederation. 
Translaterl and edited by Alfred J. Morrison. Philadelphia, 
1911. 

The Schoepf Travels rank high among that type of litera- 
ture. The affected superiority of some observers and their 
superficiality are notably al)sent from tiiis book. His work 
was done long ago, l)Ut its spirit was that of a modern investi- 
gator. 



RELICUOUS I)Iv\'i:r,()PMENT ()!• THK M'C.RO 100 

83. Semple. R. R. A History of the Rise and Progress of 
the Baptists in \'irt,nnia. Richmond. 1810. 

A s])len(Hd hook written hy a reliahle writer. Semple was 
not perfect, yet he had a line historical eye for a man of his 
time. Much of the material in Semple has no counterpart else- 
where and we are compelled to rely on him, or throw away 
such facts. His work is much used as a source. 

84. Slaui^hter, Philij). Virginia History of Colonization. 
Rich. 1855. 

The Colonization Society work was looked to as a possible 
relief from the evils of the slavery system. Bushrod Washing- 
ton, Bishop Meade, and other prominent men gave of their 
time and money in order that the free Negroes of Virginia 
might be given a home in Africa. The Negroes did not want 
to go and the Society did not fulfill the designs of its incor- 
porators. Rev. Mr. Slaughter's work gives an insight into the 
high motives which inspired the Virginians to endeavor to 
solve the race problem by colonization. 

85. Smedes, Susan Dabney. Memorials of a Southern 
Planter, Baltimore, 1888. 

The life of a notable Southern gentleman is here described. 
Few characters show many points of superiority over that of 
Col. Thomas Dabney. His high motives, consideration for 
others and care to do his duty and even more, mark him as a 
fine type of manhood. The slaves under the best masters find 
representation in this book. It does not deal with the evils of 
slavery because they were not present on the plantation that 
the author describes. 

86. Stanley, H. M. Through the Dark Continent. 2 vols. 
N. Y. 1878. 

The thrilling dash of Stanley into the Jungles of .\lrica to 
find Livingstone on a commission from James Gordon Bennett 
of the New York Herald is still fresh in the minds of older 
people. Stanley went a long distance and wrote out his ob- 
servations. His work has never received the acceptance ac- 
corded some of the more pain.staking studies of African life. 



200 RELIGIOUS deve;lopment of the: nkgro 

87. Taylor, Jas. B. Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers 
Rich. 1837. 

A book of biographies of prominent Baptist preachers. 
Serviceable to us ])ecause of the large space devoted to the Ne- 
gro Missionary, Lott Carey. This gives an insight into re- 
ligious conditions of the first third of the Nineteenth and part 
of the Eighteenth. 

88. Thomas, Wm. Hannibal. The American Negro. New 
York, 1901. 

The Negro Thomas is radical. He cuts and slashes his own 
race without just provocation at times. He has an intimate 
knowledge of the slum Negroes and presents that without re- 
gard for the better type of Negro. We strongly suspect that 
he expected to curry favor with the whites by conceding so 
much to the detriment of his race. His broad-mindedness be- 
comes historical laxness. 

89. Tillinghast, Joseph Alexander. The Negro in Africa and 
America. Publication of Am. Economic Association. 3d. 
Series, vol. HI. No. 2. New York, 1902. 

The painstaking work done on the above book gives some 
idea of the seriousness with which the Negro problem is now 
attacked. This work is rather pessimistic concerning the fu- 
ture of the Negro and recounts most of the discouraging things 
of his past. The author credits the Negro with little capacity 
to ever do much. The work expresses the sentiments of the 
great majority of white people, we believe. 

90. Tupper, II. A., Editor. The First Century of the First 
Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia. Richmond, 1880. 

A number of the more eminent members of the First Baptist 
Church presented some very valuable papers at the Centennial 
of that Church. The papers were embodied in a book. Many 
historical facts may be gleaned from this volume. It is one 
of the best church histories published in Virginia. 

91. Washington, Booker, T. The Future of the American 
Negro. Boston, 1899. 

A typical Washington book. Fie sees a roseate future for 



RKi.ic.iors niCviCi.oi'MK.N'T oi' TiiK nkc.ro 201 

the Negro by the pathway i)aved with golden dolhirs. He tells 
many interesting incidents, and sustains the attention of the 
reader. llis i)redictions are not radical and ideas of racial 
amalgamation he wisel)- leaves unmentioned. 

92. Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery. New York, 
1901. 

This autobiography is a volume which gives an insight into 
the life of the leading Afro-American in this country. Booker 
Washington is a Virginia-born Negro and his useful career 
has demonstrated that he has a marked talent for leadership. 
This book is eagerly sought by the oppressed all over the world 
and has proved an inspiration to many. The knowledge of 
Negro life and conditions and the broad-minded way of deal- 
ing with them commends such a work to the student of the 
latter half of the Nineteenth Century. 

93. Washington, Booker T. and W. E. Burghardt Du Bois. 
*'The Negro in the South, his economic progress in relation to 
his moral and religious development ; being the William Levi 
Bull lectures for 1907." Philadelphia, 1907. 

These lectures are well worded and show the contrast be- 
tween Washington and Du Bois. Washington is conservative, 
shrew^d, an allayer of racial discord and an advocate of manual 
labor ; Du Bois is radical, brilliant, an insister on rights and 
recognition, and one of the staunchest supporters of the book- 
trained Negro. Both see the absolute need of better economics 
in the lives of Negroes and both ardently advocate property 
ownership for its moral value as w^ell as for its economic. 

94. Weather ford, W. D. Negro life in the South. New 
York, 1911. 

Dr. Weatherford's book did more to stir college men to the 
importance of the Negro question than any other single vol- 
urrie. He writes burning words and really feels that he has a 
great task to perform in presenting his ideas. He writes en- 
tertainingly and covers the whole question in his book. Of 
course, none of his work can be carried as far as a scholar 
would desire because of a lack of space. His great work was 



202 RELIGIOUS de;velopment of the negro 

to stir others to study the problem. His book is a valuable ad- 
dition to the volumes published on the subject. 

95. Weld, Theodore D. American Slavery as It Is ; Testi- 
mony of a Thousand Witnesses. New York, 1839. 

Perhaps the most radical indictment of slavery. The book 
was published by the American Anti-Slavery Society and many 
expatriated Southerners contributed the most radical stories 
of atrocities imaginable. Insane men were always in the Souths 
but it is a mark of insanity to think that all people here were 
insane. The treatment of Negroes as stated in this book was 
the exception and not the rule. The book is not to be taken 
seriously. 

96. Wheatley, Phyllis. Her Poems. 

An excellent little volume of poems by a Negro girl who was 
a slave in Massachusetts and later was freed by her master. 
The work cannot approach the excellence of the poetry writ- 
ten by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, yet it is wonderful poetry for 
a Negro slave of the Eighteenth Century. 

97. White, William S. The African Preacher — an Authentic 
Narrative. Philadelphia, 1849. 

The Ante-Bellum Negro at his best is here represented. No 
one can read this profovmd statement of the homely virtues of 
a good man without feeling that slavery had its good features 
as well as bad. It is a personal narrative, written with full 
knowledge of the character described. 

98. White, William S. William S. White, D. D. and His 
Times — An Autobiography. Edited by his son, H. 'M. White. 
Richmond, Va. 1891. 

A man of great power in the Presbyterian ministry gives 
some of the important events with which he was acquainted. 
Rev. Mr. White was pastor of the church in Lexington that 
"Stonewall" Jackson attended and he was a leader in work for 
Negroes. A valuable autobiography. 

99. Williams, Geo. W. History of the Negro Race in Amer- 
ica. New York. 1882. 

The Neirro who wrote this book covered a tremendous field 



KiiLicujLS i)i:\ i;uui'Mi:.\r oi' riii'; .\i:<.Kti 203 

and it need cause no surprise that he allowed inaccuracies to 
creep in, and omitted much. The surprise is that he covered 
the tield so well. The writer is a talented representative of his 
race and has done a great work for his race. He overlooks 
much of the good of slavery for the sake of hlaming its wrongs. 
His history is suggestive of better work for the future on the 
same subject. Its spirit is modern. 

100. Woolman, John. T.ife and Travels of. Pliiladelphia, 
1774. 

The lives of the pioneers require little comment. They are 
romantic enough to thrill one and dramatic enough to prove 
that the roles they acted required masters. The autobiography 
of this Friend is one of the volumes relied on for occasional 
insights into the Negro's condition during the 18th Century. 



204 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 



APPENDIX. 

The personal element is an especially important one in the 
discussion of the religious phase of the Negro question in Vir- 
ginia. An institution is largely interpreted by its human ex- 
ponents. The Negro church is largely measured by its mem- 
bers, but it must also be measured by its leaders. The Negro 
ministers of Virginia are excellent men in many instances and 
this history could not be complete without some specific ref- 
erences to the lives and work of these. The evils which the 
Negro race is lieir to and which environment has superposed 
u])on it are largely to be met by the forces marshaled by these 
religious leaders. If the influence of the Negro preachers is 
waning at all. it has not yet waned so perceptibly as to hamper 
seriously the good work which they endeavor to do. No one 
can deny that many of them are factors for good. 

The names of some of the more prominent Negro ministers 
of Virginia are appended. Some of these men are doing the 
real constructive work by which the Negro Church is to be 
judged. We could not attempt to make the list inclusive, but 
we have endeavored to present the lives of some of the foremost 
among their religious leaders. Many very young men will 
find their names omitted, but if their work of the future in the 
ministry is commensurate with their promise at present, some 
later writer will be pleased to record their worthy achievements. 

In securing this data we were greatly aided by a few leaders 
among the leaders of Negroes. In this appendix the ministers' 
names are arranged alphabetically under the various ecclesi- 
astical divisions. When tlie lists were prepared, the following 
letter was sent to each person whose l)rief biography is here 
given, and the resj^onses were promi)t and given with a seem- 
ing desire to aid in the study of the question : 

You have been designated to me as one of the most promi- 
nent preachers of your denomination in Virginia. I am now 
writing a "History of the Religious Development of the Negro 
in Virginia," and I want to include your l)iography as one of 



RELIGIOUS DIvVKLOl'Ml-.XT oK Tlllv NlCGRO 205 

the present-day leaders in the racial uplift. Please answer the 
questions below immediately (it will only require a few min- 
utes time), and return to me in enclosed stamped envelope. 
This matter is pressing and very im])ortant. 

1. Full name : 

2. Date and place of birth : 

3. Titles (such as B. D.. LL. D., or Ph. D.) : D. D. 

4. Education — Name of institutions and date of courses : 

5. If married — Date of and to whom: 

6. Give names of churches, locations and length of your dif- 
ferent pastorates : 

7. Number of members in your present church : 

8. How long have you been preaching? 

9. Any public honors — Political, fraternal or otherwise? 

10. Any interesting facts concerning yourself that you con- 
sider important? 



Convention Baptist. 

1. Full name: W. R. Ashburn. 

2. Date and place of birth: Feb. 8. 

3. Titles (such as B. D., LL. D., or Ph. D. ) : D. D. 

4. Education — -Name of institutions and date of courses: 
Va. Theo. Sem. & Coll. 

5. If married — Date of and to w^hom : Josie Campbell, July, 
1893. and M. C. Holmes, June, 1898, both deceased. 

6. Give names of churches, locations and length of your 
different pastorates: First Baptist Church, Salem, Zion Bap- 
tist, So. Richmond, Cool Spring Baptist Church, Franklin, Va. 
Cool Spring is the present charge, have been here 7 years, and 
at the others 3 and 7 each. 

7. Number of members in your present church : 900. 

8. How long have you been preaching? 20 years. 

9. Any public honors — Political, fraternal or otherwise? 
Was State Missionary for the Va. Baptist State Convention. 
Am president of the State B. Y. P. U. of Virginia. 

10. Any interesting facts concerning yourself that you con- 
sider important ? Mother and father both living, with 8 children ; 



-14 



206 RELIGIOUS DEVE^IvOPMENT OF THE) NEGRO 

2 sons pastors, a son and daughter physicians ; the president of 
the Ashburn Brothers Shirt Mfg. Co. 



1. John Hilyer Ashby. 

2. June 10, 1875, York Co., Va. 

3. 

4. I received my education under private teachers, much of 
the time I was my own teacher. 

5. Fannie S. Scott of Powhatan Co., April 10, 1900. 

6. First Baptist, WilHamsburg, Va., 3 years, Shiloh Baptist, 
Norfolk, 5 years, and am still in charge. 

7. 300. 

8. Nine years. 

9. Member of State Board of the Va. Baptist Convention 
and is mentioned as successor to the late Dr. R. H. Bowling of 
Bute Street Baptist Church of Norfolk. 

10. Without even a Normal School education or the sup- 
porting influence of any special person, the Lord is using me 
with great success. 



1. Junius Caesar Austin. 

2. Aug. 1, 1885, New Canton, Va. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. Virginia Seminary and College, Lynchburg, Va. Spent 
eight years in this school, doing literary and theological work, 
from 1902-1910, graduating May 28. 

5. Inez K. Pollard of Covington, Va., a tailoress. Nov. 23, 
1910. 

6. Main St. Baptist Church, Clifton Forge, Va., from June, 
1910, to February, 1912. From that date to this hour, pastor 
of "The Mt. Zion Baptist Church," Staunton, Va. 

7. 1342. 

8. 14 years. Held a summer charge while in school in Bel- 
mar, N.'j., from 1906 to 1909. 

9. On graduating I was class orator ; and in the Annual Ora- 
torical Contest I won the Cold Medal. 

10. Within these two years we have added unto the church 
342 souls and raised over $11,000. Was converted when 11 
years old, licensed to ])reach at the age of 14 years. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF TlIIv NEGRO 207 

1. Richard Wright Ashhurii. 

2. April 15, 1876, Churchland, Va. 

3. B. D. 

4. PubHc Schools, Norfolk Co., and \a. Theo. Seni. and 
Col, Lynchburg, \a. Pub. School from 18cS3 to "94. College 
from '97 to 1904. 4 years Academy, 3 years Theology. 

5. Irene Baylor, Washington, D. C, Dec. 20, 1905. 

6. Poplar Lawn, Wellville,' Va., 2 years; Shiloh Baptist., 
Blackstone, Va., 10 years. 

7. 750. 

8. 14 years. 

9. Member Foreign Mission and Publication Boards, Va. 
Bapt. Convention. Ex-Treasurer State B. Y. P. U. 

10. He finished school through hardship. 



1. Samuel A. Brown. 

2. Feb. 27, 1876, Charles City Co., Va. 

3. B. A. 

4. State Normal and Collegiate Institute. Normal Course 
1895-'98; Collegiate Course 1898-1902. Owing to lack of 
means — read Theology privately. 

5. Clementine Poole, Sept., 1903. 

6. Second New Hope Bapt., Spottsylvania Co., Va. 4 years 
. . . . Cilltield Bapt. 1 year. 

7. 1500. 

8. 14 years. 

9. For six years have been president of one of the largest 
associations in the state — viz., Mattaponi Bapt. Assoc. 

10. Worked my way up from the bottom with no one to 
contribute a cent to my education. Am president of a colored 
High School at Fredericksburg, Va., which I founded in 1905. 
We now own property worth $7,000, including 25 acres land 
for demonstration work. 



1. James Hampton Burks. 

2. Boonsboro, Bedford Co., Va., Dec. 7, 1873. 

3. B. D. 



208 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

4. Virginia Theo. Seminary and College. Jan. 2, 1892 — June, 
1900. 

5. Rosa Davis, Lynchburg, Va., Jan. 2, 1902. 

6. Zion Bapt. Church, Manchester, Va. 2 years ; High St. 
Bapt. Church, Roanoke, Va., from Sept., 1902, to present time. 

7. 1,000. 

8. Since July, 1900. 

9. Degree of D. D. conferred upon me by my Alma Mater in 
1912. 

10. Cliairman of Trustee Board of Va. Theological Semi- 
nary and College ; Moderator of Valley Bapt. Association. 



1. J. G. St. Clair Drake. 

2. March 5, 1879, Payne's Bay, St. James, Barbados, British 
West Indies. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. Graduated from Academic Department of Harrison Col- 
lege, Bridgetown, Barbados, British West Indies, June 28, 1899. 
From Va. Theo. Seminary & College, Lynchburg, Va. (Col- 
lege and Theological Courses), with degree B. D. May 27, 

1907. Doctor of Divinity from Afro-American School of Cor- 
respondence, Washington, D. C, Sept. 25, 1913. 

5. Bessie L. Bowles, Staunton, Va., April 6, 1910. 

. 6. Antioch Baptist Church, Peaksville, Va., 1905 to 1907 
(while in College) First Baptist Church, Harri- 
sonburg, Va., present charge, Jan. 1, 1913. 

7. 300. 

8. From 1902 to present. 

9. I was elected Statistical Secretary of Virginia Baptist 
State Convention at its meeting in Newport News, Va., May, 

1908, and hold that position until now. 

10. During my summer vacation while in Va. Theo. Sem. & 
College I travelled as Financial Secretary for the Baptist State 
Sunday-school Convention of Virginia, with much success to 
the work. Spent two years in Paris, France, studying French 
language. Organized and was president of Nanseniond Nor- 
mal and Ind. Inst., Suffolk, Va., until tliroat affection com- 
pelled me to resign. From 1907 to. 1908. 



RELIGIOUS UIvVliLOl'MllNT Ol" llllv NlvC.KO 20'>> 

1. Alexander Arthur Galvin. 

2. New (^.lasgow, Amherst Co., Va. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. I am a graduate of Va. Tlieological v'^cniinary and Col- 
lege, having completed the Academic and Theological Courses, 
May, 1897. 

5. Janie P. Toles, Dec. 22, 1897. 

6. I pastored Ebenezer Bapt. Church, Stauntcjn, Va., four 
years and a half, and this coming June will make twelve years 
for me in the Loyal St. Bapt. Ch., Danville, Va. 

7. About 1,000. 

8. Sixteen years. 

9. I am a trustee of the above named school and Pres. of the 
Va. Bapt. State Convention. 

10. 



1. Louis R. W. Johnson. 

2. Dec. 11, 1878, Staunton, Va. 

3. A. B., A. M., S. T. B. 

4. Lincoln Uni. Pa. College and Theo. Sem. 1895-'99-Col- 
lege, 1899-1902-Theology. With summer and Correspondence 
Courses since at several institutions. 

5. Alberta B. Coles, Charlottesville, Jan. 4, 1904. 

6. Mt. Zion Bapt. Church, Millboro, 1903-'04 

Now at Va. Theo. Sem. & College, and Church. 

7. Not less than 1500. 

8. Since 1902. 

9. None. 

10. Listructor of Freshmen and Sophs, in Greek at Lincoln 
Uni. (while a theological student). Principal of Piedmont 
Institute Charlottesville (burned 1905). Dean of Theo. Dei)t. 
and Prof, of Greek, Va. Theo. Sem. & College, Lynchburg, \'a. 
1907-8, during which Deanship I was called to Court St. Bapt. 
Church. This space of 12 years has been well used both in 
preaching and teaching. 

1. Charles E. Jones. 

2. Concord, Campbell Co., Va., July 31, 1877. 



210 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF TMIJ NEGRO 

3. B. D. 

4. Va. Theo. Sem. & College, Lynchburg, Va., May, 1901, 
finished. 

5. April 22, 1903, Alice A. Walker Harris. 

6. Zion Baptist Church, Newport News, Va., 13 years. 

7. 500. 

8. 14 years. 

9. Only Pastor. 

10. In 1910 the Holy Ghost used me remarkably in that 337 
souls were converted unto God in Zion Baptist Church. Now 
building a church to cost $25,000. 



1. Samuel Alford Moses. 

2. Charlotte C. H., Mar. 17, 1877. 

3. A. B., D. D. 

4. Virginia Tlieo. Sem. & College, Lynchburg, Va. Col- 
•lege, '05, Theology, '05. 

5. June 10, 1908, Carrie L. Calloway, Richmond, Va. 

6. General Supt. Missions, Va. Bapt. State Convention, 
1905-'08 ; First Bapt. Church, Harrisonburg, Va., 6 years; 
High St. Baptist Church, Danville, Va., 1 year. 

7. 500. 

8. 15 years. 

9. No. 

10. I am one of three brothers who are pastoring. The 
other two are : Jas. M. Moses, D. D., pastor of Monumental 
Bapt. Church, Phila. ; and W. H. Moses, D. D., pastor of Mt. 
Zion Bapt. Church, Knoxville, Tenn. 



1. Joseph Jordan Nickerson. 

2. July 4, 1875, Jefferson Co., Florida. 

3. Pursuing a B. Th. course. 

4. Literary and Theological, 1907-1913. Virginia Union 
University, Richmond, Va. 

5. June 28, 1907, Carrie E. Nichols. 

6. St. John Baptist Church, Ormond, Florida, 1904-'06. 
The first four years of my ministry were spent largely in mis- 
sion work. Now in Williamsburg, Va. 



RliLlGIOL'S UlCXlCLOrMKNT OV THIC NMvC.KO 211 

7. 800. 

8. 13 years. 

9. None. 

10. My life from childhood to manhood was spent in the 
country, where the chances for an education were poor, and 
I did not come in contact with men that could hel]) me until 
I was twenty-eight. 



1. Robert Cicero Pannell. 

2. Leesville, Va., July 30, 1865. 

3. D. D. 

4. Public School, Campbell Co., and Lynchburg, Va., Hamp- 
ton Inst. 5 years. Private course in Theology, 6 years. 

5. Sept. 27, 1888, Maria Louise Branch, Lynchburg, Va. 

6. Lovingston, Lynchburg, three years ; Ebenezer Baptist 
Church, Staunton, eleven years. 

7. 487. 

8. Twenty-six years. 

9. Pres. Western District S. S. Convention. Chairman Min- 
isters Conference, Staunton. Moderator Berean Association 
at present time. 

10. I am architect of the Ebenezer Church, begun in 1910, 
completed 1913, cost about $16,000. 



1. Charles Henry Phillips. 

2. May, 1857, Louisa County, Va. 

3. D. D. 

4. None. 

5. Dec. 31, 1903, Maggie Powell. 

6. Union, Beaver Dam, 30 years; St. Thomas, Bumpass, 4 
years. 

7. 250. 

8. Thirty-five years. 

9. I was endorsed as National Evangelist by the National 
Baptist Convention of America. 

10. I have conducted revivals in at least twenty states, for 
twenty years, there have been fully 25,000 souls born into the 
kingdom of Christ. 



212 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEORO 

1. Lafayette F. Sharp. 

2. Harrellsville, N. C, Jan. 14, 1873. 

3. B. Th. 

4. State Normal, Plymouth, N. C. ; Roanoke Institute, Eliza- 
beth City, N. C. 

5. 1901, Lillie E. Cooper, Windsor, N. C. 

6. Providence Bapt. Ch. Edenton, 6 years first 

Baptist Church, Berkley, Ya., 7 years. 

7. 450. 

8. 18 years. 

9. 

10. Principal Albemarle Training School, Edenton, 4 years. 
Have been called to three large churches in North Carolina. 
Will leave for North Carolina, Apr. 15. 



1. Thomas H. Shorts. 

2. Fauquier Co., Va., Sept. 21, 1849. 

3. D. D. 

4. H. N. and A. I. Hampton, Va., and Guadalupe College, 
Seguin, Tex., 1889 and 1901, respectively. 

5. Oct. 11, 1877, Cornelia Davis, Orange C. H., Va. 

6. Garfield Bapt. Church, Clarke Co., \ a., 3 years 

Queen St. Bapt. Church, Hampton, Va., 30 years. 

7. 1,200. 

8. 35 years. 

9. Fraternal P. S. G. R. of G. U. O. of G. F., also H. P. of 
same. V. C. of T. B. of Va. Sem. and College, Lynchburg, Va., 
Treas. State Board Bapt. S. Convention, Va. 

10. Trying to complete our Queen St. Bapt. Church, Hamp- 
ton, Va., destroyed by fire about eight years ago, at a co.'^t of 
about $32,000. 



1. Jas. H. Smith. 

2. March 6, 1861, Mathews Co., Va. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. Hampton Normal School, Theo. of Wayland Sem., 1888, 
Washington, D. C. Graduated at Storer College, 1890, and 
Howard University, May 27, 1892. 



RKLIC.IIJUS 1)1v\'1:L()1'M1:NT ol" Till: Nl-C.KO 213 

5. Nov. 8, 1893. Susie A. Jackson, <jracluate Storer CoIIcrc. 

6. New Mt. Zion, (iloucester Co., Va., 12 years . . . . 
first Bapt. East End, Newport News, present pastorate, 10 
years. 

7. 683. 

8. Began 1881. 

9. Moderator Tidewater P. Bapt. Asso., first Vice Pres. Dis. 
S. S. Con. Trustee, Va., Theo. Sem. & College, and of ihe 
Newport News Training School. Vice Pres. Whittier Memo- 
rial Hospital. 

10. . 



1. Bernard Tyrrell. 

2. Albemarle Co., near Earlysville, Va. 

3. A. M., A. B., D. D. 

4. Storer College, Harper's Ferry, W. Va., 1879. Hillsdale 
College, about 1883 to 1888. Yale Divinity School, 1890 to 
1893. 

5. Sept. 12, 1894, Elizabeth Wilkerson. 

6. Holcombe Rock Bapt. Church, Bedford Co., 15 months. 
The Diamond Hill Bapt. Church, Lynchburg, 18>4 years. 

7. 603. 

8. Twenty-four years. 

9. I have been Vice President from Va. of the National 
Baptist Convention six years. Vice President \'a. Baptist 
State Convention. 

10. Began teaching Greek, Latin, etc., in Va. Theo. Sem. & 
College in 1893. Have been for a number of years and am now, 
Dean of Theological Department. 



1. Robert Clisson Woods. 

2. Nov. 17, 1882, Stewartsville, Va. 

3. B. D., D. D., A. B., A. M. 

4. Public High School. Va. Theo. Sem. & College; College 
Course, A. B. 1906; Theo. Course, B. D. '06. 

5. June 6, 1907, Octavia Hunter. 

6. President Clayton-Williams University, Balto., Md. 1906- 



214 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OP THE NEGRO 

'08. First Baptist Church, Staunton, Va., 1908-'ll. President 
Va. Theo. Sem. & College, Lynchburg, Va., 1911. 

7. . 

8. Eight years. 

9. Have held prominent offices in State religious bodies. 

10. Have written several pamphlets. The most widely read 
one, "Why I am a Baptist." A statement of the Baptists' posi- 
tion. 



1. Thomas H. White. 

2. Oct. 8, 1869, King and Queen Co., Va. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. Va. Theo. Sem. & College, Lynchburg, Va., and private 
instruction. 4 years Academic and 3 years Theological 
Courses. 1890- '97. 

5. June 20, 1900. Martha A. Harper, Richmond, Va. 

6. Asst. pastor First Baptist, Richmond, Va., 1897-'98. In- 
structor in Church Polity and Mathematics in my Alma Mater 
the sessions of 1898 and 1900 inclusive First Bap- 
tist Church, Clifton Forge. 

7. 400. 

8. Since 1894. 

9. I am a 32 degree Mason and Grand Prelate of the K. of P. 
of Virginia. Cor. Sec. Va. Bapt. State Convention, and Vir- 
ginia's representative on the Home Mission Board of National 
Baptist Convention. 

10. Reared at Richmond, Va. Baptized into membership of 
First African Baptist Church, July, 1887. 



1. Randolph W. Young. 

2. 1851, Essex County. 

3. D. D. 

4. Richmond Theo. Sem. 1887-'89. 

5. Feb., 1880, Mary C. Carter, Caroline County. 

6. Mt. Tabor, Shumansville, Va., 12 years Je- 
rusalem, Car. Co., 9 years. 

7. 1,100. (Three churches.) 

8. About 35 years. 



Ri:i<ic.i()i'S i)i;\i':i-<>i'Mi"..\"r oi' Tiirc nrgro 215 

9. President Essex Sunday-school Union and 1^-csidcnt of 
Caroline S. S. Union. Pres. of B. G. I. Academy and Trnstee 
Board. 

10. My pastorate in the ahove named clnnTlics has heen one 
of peace and prosperity. 



African Methodist Episcopal Zion. 

1. James Parkhurst Foote. 

2. Oct. 4, 1875, Iredelle Co., N. C. 

3. A. B. 

4. Completed Normal Collegiate courses at Livingstone Col- 
lege, Salisbury, North Carolina, 1902, 1906. 

5. June 6. 1906, Berta Barksdale. June 8, 1910, Almeta Clin- 
ton. 

6. Getlisemane, Charlotte, N. C, 2 years Oak 

St. Church, Petersburg. 

7. About 350. 

8. Since Nov., 1905. 

9. None. 

10. All of minor importance. 



1. Beverly Joseph Bolding. 

2. Feb. 7, 1866, Alexandria, Va. 

3. A. B., B. D., D. D., LL. D. 

4. Collegiate Howard University and Temple College. B. D. 
Episcopal Divinity School, 1890. Honorary Degrees from Lin- 
coln and Livingstone College. 

5. Dec. 24, 1890, Ella A. Drummond, Phila., Pr. of Inst, for 
Colored Youtii. 

6. Phila., Pa Oak St., Petersburg, Va. Now 

presiding Elder Petersburg District. 

7. . 

8. 25 years. 

9. Elected Editor Varick Endeavorer, May, 1900, a general 
office in A. M. A. Zion Church. 

10. Built John Wesley A. M. E. Zion Church, Wash., D. C. 
Bought Pa. Ave. A. M. E. Zion Church, Baltimore, Md., and 



216 RELIGIOUS deve;lopment of the nugro 

parsonage. Remodeled and bought other property to the 
amount of $65,000 to A. Al. E. Zion Church. 



1. EHjah P. Mayo. 

2. May 30, 1860. 

3. D. D., LL. D. 

4. The Salem Academy, Salem, N. C, finished in 1887. Since 
then took a course in McKenley University. 

5. July 10, 1902, Bessie C. Wilson, graduate of V. N. & I. I., 
P'etersburg, Va. 

6. "The Old Ship" A. M. E. Zion church, Montgomery, Ala. 
43^ years Am now pastor at Bristol, Va. 

7. 275. 

8. 22 years. 

9. I was Grand Chief of the Co. of G. S. and D. S. in the 
state of Kentucky, while pastoring at Middleboro, Ky., for three 
years. 

10. The people say I am a business man as well as a preacher. 
I own property in Tennessee and Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky 
and Alabama. 



1. Colson Willis Winheld. 

2. Dec. 20, 1850, Dinwiddie Co., Va. 

3. D. D., Livingstone College. 

4. Kelly School and Payne Divinity School, 1878 to 1885. 

5. Dec. 11, 1872, Louisa Williams. 

6. Oak St., Petersburg, Va., 4 years P. E. 24 

years. 

7. 2,748 in my district. 

8. 38 years. 

9. . 

10. I have been Presiding Elder on the Edenton district 12 
years, and on the Norfolk and Petersburg district 12 years. 



1. Richard Hilton Riddick. 

2. Tyrrell Co., N. C, in 1873. 

3. A. M., D. D. 



Ri;i.u;i()l-S DICXlvLOl'Ml'lNT oK T 1 1 Iv XlCCUO 217 

4. Plymouth State Normal. A. M. from Ivastern College. 
Newberne, N. C. D. D. from Livingston College, Salisbury, N. C. 

5. June 11, 1902, M. K. Fox, Chillicothe, Ohio. 

6. Varrick Chapel. Lunenburg Co., \'a Norfolk". 

7. 750. 

8. 15 years. 

9. Grand lecturer for In. Order of C.ood Samaritans and 
Daughters of Samaria for State of North Carolina. 

10. Was President of Edenton Industrial College for seven 
years. 



Association Baptists. 

1. Anthony Binga, Jr. 

2. June 1, 1843, Amhersburg, Ontario, Canada. 

3. D. D. from Shaw University. 

4. King's Institute, Buxton, Out. 

5. Dec. 2, 1869, Rebecca L. Bush ; 1909, M. V. Young. 

6. Held principalship of Albany Enterprise Academy, Athens 
Co., Ohio, for three years and preached to students. Have been 
pastor of First Baptist Church So. Richmond 41 years and 9 
months. 

7. Over 1,400. 

8. Nearly 47 years. 

9. Vice Chairman Trustee Board V. U. University ; Treasurer 
General Assoc, of Va. ; Chairman Foreign Mission Board Gen. 
Assoc. Va. ; Member Foreign Board Lett Carey Convention. 

10. I was principal of Public School of this city for sixteen 
years. Have written and published eight pamphlets and books, 
one 324 pages. 



1. George Washington Goode. 

2. March 14, 1865, Patrick Co., Va. 
'3. B. D., D. D. 

4. High School, Marion, Va. ; Institute and Theological 
Courses in Richmond Theological Seminary completing the He- 
brew and Greek Course with degree of B. D., 1895. Six years 
there. 



218 KliLlOlUUS DlCVELOPMENT OF THE) NKGKO 

5. June 24, 1896, JNlary L. Gaines, public school teacher of 
Richmond. 

6. Salem Baptist, West Point, Va., 4 years, and Mt. Zion Bap- 
tist, Churchview, Va., at same time. Calvary Baptist, Danville, 
Va., 18 years. 

7. About 550. (It had 50 members when I came to it.) 

8. About 28 years. 

9. Secretary of Cherry Stone Association 14 years. President 
of Baptist General Association 7 years. Founder and President 
of Pittsylvania N. & C. Inst. 12 years, etc. 

10. Have not sought a position or work for 18 years. Have 
had lucrative positions on average of one every two years, since 
I've been here. Have given time and money to every phase of 
our denominational work. Specially interested in Foreign Mis- 
sions. More than 1,200 have professed Christ since I came 
here. 



1. Archie Allen Graham. 

2. Feb. 9, 1873; Atlanta, Ga. 

4. Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tenn., 1890-1895. Union 
University, Richmond, Va., 1898-1900. 

5. Sept. 18, 1901, Florence E. Isham, Richmond, Va. 

6. Zion Baptist Church, Phoebus, Va., 14 years. 

7. About 1,600. 

8. About 15 years. 

9. Moderator Norfolk Union Baptist Association. Secretary 
General Association of Virginia (col.). Ch'man Ex. Bd. Negro 
Organization Soc, Va. 

10. Actively interested in questions of health and education of 
the race. 



1. Royal B. Hardy. 

2. March 27, 1856, Botetourt Co., Va. 

3. B. D. 

4. Richmond Institute, Academic, 5 years. Theological Sem- 
inary, 3 years. 

5. April 27, 1893, Fellisco W. Payne. 



RELKUOUS 1)1':\I'X0PMKNT Ol" llllv M-.CRO 219 

6. Alt. Zion, Charlottesville, V^a., 22 years at the same ehiirrh. 

7. 600. 

8. 27 years. (In school part of the time.) 

9. D. D. was conferred by Va. Union University. 

10. Moderator of Shiloh Baptist Association, which position I 
have held for 18 years. 



1. William Thomas Johnson. 

2. July 19, 1866, So. Richmond, Va. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. Virginia Union University, 1886-1893. 

5. Sept. 5, 1895, Margaret R. Michie. 

6. Mt. Olive Bapt. Church, Chesterfield Co., Va., 4 years First 
Bapt. Church, Lexington, Va., 9 years. First African Baptist 
Church, Richmond, 12 years. 

7. 3,378. 

8. 25 years. 

9. Curator Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute ; Trustee 
Va. Union University ; Trustee United Society Christian En- 
deavor ; Pres. Friends Orphan Asylum ; Secretary Educational 
Board Gen. Assoc, Va. 

10. I am also Treas. Negro Baptist Old Folks Home ; Ch'man 
Lott Carey Foreign Mission Board of the Lott Carey Foreign 
Mission Convention. 



1. Charles Henry Johnson. 

2. Feb. 17, 1859, Culpeper Co., Va. 

3. D. D. (from Va. Union University, Richmond, Va.). 

4. Richmond Institute, completed Literary and Theological 
Courses May 11. 1883. 

5. July 31, 1889, Winnie Lee Branch. 

6. State Missionary Va. Baptist State S. S. Convention five 
years. Lee St. Bapt. Church, Bristol, Va. & Tenn., 24 years. 

7. 500. 

8. 35 years. 

9. Moderator Schaffer Memorial Baptist Assoc, and Vice- 
Pres. Bapt. General Assoc. Va., and State S. S. Convention 24 
years. 



220 RELIGIOUS DKVIvLOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

10. I received practically all my primary training from my 
parents' former owners, Rev. John Farrar and family of Lynch- 
burg, later of Cnl]:)eper and ( )range counties. 



1. Joseph Eudon Jones. 

2. Lynchburg, Va. 

3. A. M., A. B., D. D. 

4. Private training and three years private school in Lynch- 
burg. Colver Institute. Graduated from the Academy and Mad- 
ison (Colgate) University, 1876. 

5. 1882, Rosa Daniel Kinckle, Lynchburg, Va. 

6. Bethesda Baptist Church, Chesterfield Co., Va., 22 years. 

7. 250. 

8. 36 years. 

9. Prof, in Richmond Inst, and Richmond Theological Sem- 
inary ; now in Va. Union University. 

10. Corresponding Secretary Bapt. For. Mission Convention, 
U. S. A. for a number of years. Also editor for years of de- 
nominational paper. 



1. Zechariah Dearborn Lewis. 

2. Nov. 25, 1859, Lynchburg, Va. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. Freedmen's School, 1865. Richmond Institute, 1883, com- 
pleted Academic Course in three years. Graduated from Rich- 
mond Theological Seminary, 1889. 

5. July 2, 1889, Ada F. McKenny, Richmond, Va. 

6. Shady Grove Baptist Church, Orange Co., Va., about five 
years. Second Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., continuously 
since 1889. 

7. 2,100. 

8. 30 years. 

9. Pres. Gen. Bapt. Assoc. Va. ; Member Pub. Board National 
Bapt. Convention, Executive Board Lott Carey For. Miss. Con- 
vention, Trustee Board Virginia Union University. Was first 
President Southern Aid Insurance Co. of Va. Is Vice Pres. 
St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. Represented Virginia in 50th. 



RELIGIOUS DKVl'XOl'MKNT oF TUlC NEGRO 221 

Anniversary of the Negroes' Emancipation, Nov., 1913, in New 
York State. 

10. In first revival conducted alone, more than 500 converts 
were baptized. Gained quite a reputation a few years ago in 
debate with a Catholic ])riest of Richmond, on the subject : "Can 
man forgive sin?" 



1. Charles Satchell Morris. 

2. Sept. 26. 1865, Louisville, Ky. 

3. D. D., LL. D. 

4. Wilberforce University, Ohio, 1876-'81. Howard Univer- 
sity, Washington, D. C, 1886-'89. Uni. Michigan, 1893. Boston 
University, 1893-4. Newton Theological Seminary, 1895-'98. 

5. July 7, 1898, Sadie Eugenia Waterman, Charleston, S. C. 

6. Myrtle Bapt.. West Newton, Mass., 3 years. Abyssinian 
Baptist, New York City, 6 years. Bank St. Bapt., Norfolk, Va., 
1911 to date. 

7. 1500. 

8. 17 years. 

9. Pres. Mass. State Prohibition Convention, 1898. Won Na- 
tional Prize for Oratory representing Massachusetts. Opened 
British Chautauqua. Asst. Secretary Nat. Rep. Convention, 
1892. 

10. Represented Newton Seminary in College temperance 
oratorical contest in Massachusetts, won first prize, $25. Rep- 
resented Massachusetts in National contest at Pittsburg in 1897, 
won first prize, $75. 



1. Philip Fisher Morris. 

2. Heathsville, Northumberland Co., Va. 

3. A. M., D. D. 

4. Howard University, Washington, D. C. Graduated 1880. 

5. 1882. Angelina Taliaferro. Lynchburg, Va. 

6. Lynchburg, Va. : Court St. Baptist Church, 17 years; 
Eighth St. Baptist Church, 12 years. 

7. Not pastoring now. 

8. 27 years. 



—15 



222 RKI.TOIOUS DEVKLOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

9. 33 degree Mason and P. G. Master of Masons of Va. 

10. Dean of I'heological Department Shaw University, Ral- 
eigh, N. C, for three years, also Prof. Logic, Ethics and Eco- 
nomics. 



1. Jesse Waddell Patterson. 

2. July 15, 1870, New Kent C. H. 

3. B. D. 

4. Richmond Theological Seminary (also took academic course 
there), finished 1896. 

5. Sept. 30, 1903, Julia Ann Vivian Chiles, Louisa, Va. 

6. Zion Bapt. Church, Louisa Co., Va., 8 years 

First Baptist Church Hampton, Va., 8 years. 

7. 1260. 

8. 18 years. 

9. Cor. Sec. Norfolk Baptist Assoc, Treasurer Baptist Gen. 
Assoc. 

10. I served on the Llome Mission Field as a missionary three 
years during my time in school, with marked success. 



1. David Nathaniel Vassar. 

2. Dec. 5, 1847, Bedford City. 

3. A. B., A. M., D. D. 

4. A. B. & A. M., Colgate, Hamilton, N. Y.— 1877 class. D. 
D., Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C, 1892. 

5. June 21, 1882, Alice Walker Kinckle. 

6. Louisa First Baptist Church, 32 years. 

7. About 600. 

8. About 40 years. 

9. Moderator Shiloh Baptist Assoc. 2 years ; Treasurer For. 
Miss. Convention, 10 years. Grand Chief Templar of Va. 5 
years. ( Good Templars. ) 

10. Taught 25 years in Richmond. Sent by Southern Baptist 
Foreign Mission Convention (col.) in 1892 to Africa to over- 
look the mission fields. 



1. Ellis Watts. 

2. Sweetbriar, Amherst, Va. 



RKLicioi's i)i:\i:r,()i'.Mi:\T oi' 'lui-: N-i:r,Ko 223 

3. B. D.. D. D. 

4. Richmond Institute, Richmond Theological Seminary,. 
1875-80. 1891-4. 

5. 1880. Octavia Brown. Richmond. Va. 

6. First Baptist, Louisa Petersburg, 21 years. 

Present charge is a new church". 

7. 

8. 44 years. 

9. Seven years president General Assoc, (col.). Moderator 
Va. Lebanon Baptist Assoc, at present. 

10. My present charge came out of the Howard St. Church ; 
eleven years ago. Put up a building at a cost of $22,000, pres- 
ent debt on building, $10,000. 



Presbyterian. 



1. James Richard Barrett. 

2. Early 60's, Danville, Va. 

3. A. M., S. T. B. 

4. Graduate of Hampton, 1879; of Lincoln University, Pa.,. 
1887; and of the Seminary, 1894. 

5. Widower. 

6. Central Pres. Church, Lynchburg, Va., 11 years; in this 
county, Amelia, 9 years (3 churches). 

7. One has 52, the other, 109. 

8. 20 years. 

9. 

10. Teaching 27 years — Primary to College grades. Founder 
of Danville Industrial High School. 



1. William Edward Carr. 

2. Oct. 10, 1854, Baltimore, Md. 

3. A. M., D. D. 

4. Graduate of College Dep't, Lincoln University, I 'a.. 1877, 
Theological Department, 1881. 

5. Dec. 26, 1882, Ruth R. J. Fisher, Washington, D. C. 

6. Central Presbyterian, Lynchburg, Va., 2 years 

Holbrook St. Presbyterian, Danville, Va., 23 years next August. 



224 RELIGIOUS Dr;vi;LOPMENT OE TIIi; NEGRO 

7. 140. 

8. 33 years. 

9. Have represented my Presbytery three different times in 
General Assembly. 

10. Have been moderator of Synod ; and moderator of Pres- 
bytery several times. 



1. Lilburn Liggins Downing. 

2. May 3, 1862, Lexington, Va. 

3. A. B., S. T. B., A. M., D. D. 

4. Lincoln University, Pa., 1884-1894. 

5. June 10, 1888, Lottie J. Clinton, daughter of Bishop J. J. 
Clinton, A. M. E. Z. church. 

6. Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, July, 1894, and so for 
twenty years, Roanoke, Va. 

7. 150. 

8. Twenty years. 

9. Grand Master of District Grand Lodge, No. 15, Virginia, 
4 years. G. U. O. O. F. Serving fourth term as President 
Patriarchal Union covering Delaware, Maryland, D. C. and 
Virginia. 

10. At present Chaplain in Chief and member of grand Staff 
Council Patriarchies of America. G. U. O. of O. F., Rank 
Colonel. Am and have been for sixteen years the only colored 
member of Republican City Committee. Deputy Grand Master 
M. W. Grand Lodge of A. F. & A. M. of Virginia. The Pres- 
bytery of Southern Va. honored me twice as its moderator, and 
elected me three times as Commissioner to the General Assem- 
bly, at Los Angeles, Cal., Warsaw, Ind., and in 1913 to the his- 
torical Assembly at Atlanta, Ga. I was the first permanent 
Sabl)ath-school missionary in this state under the Board of Pub- 
lication and S. S. work of our General Assembly. 



1. James E. Harper. 

2. Jan. 4, 1875, Abbeville. S. C. 

3. S. T. B. 

4. A. B., A. M., Lincoln University, Pa. ; College Class, 1895. 
TI:eology, 1898. 



RKLIGIOUS lilCVlvLOI'MKNT oi" Till'; Mli'.Ko 225 

5. 1903, Alary L. Baptist, a school teacher of West Chester, 
Pa. 

6. Athens, ( )hio, 1 year. Carniel L'resb\lerian church, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. 12 years. First Presbyterian (col.), Richmond, 
Va., 2 years. 

7. 121. • 

8. 15 years. 

9. In demand for addresses, both political and fraternal. 

10. Organized and founded the first and only Colored Presby- 
terian church in the state of Ohio. 



1. John Grandison Harris. 

2. Cumberland Co., Va. 

3. None. 

4. Howard University, Washington, D. C, Theological and 
Literary Courses. Oct., 1879, to April, 1886. (Theol. 3 years, 
Literary 4 years.) 

5. Nov. 22, 1888, H. L. Peck; June 19, 1906, S. B. Hill. 

6. French Broad Presbyterian church, Henderson Co., N. 
C, 1 year Central Presbyterian Church, Peters- 
burg, Va., 15 years. 

7. 50. 

8. 28 years. 

9. None. 

10. Have been successful in reviving three dead churches. T 
have given and raised scholarships for the education of 128 
boys and girls since 1886. 



1. William Henry Sheppard. 

2. March 8, 1865, Waynesboro, Va. 

3. D. D., F. R. G. S. 

4. Hampton Normal Institute; Stilman Theological Semi- 
nary, Tuscaloosa, Ala. 

5. Feb. 21, 1894, Lucy Jones Gantt. 

6. Twenty years in Luebo, Congo Free State, Central Africa. 

7. 140. 



226 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

8. lj/4 years in Louisville, Ky. 

9. 

10. "Sent to Louisville by Ex. Com. Home Missions, South- 
ern Presbyterian Churcii, to work among his own race. His 
life as a missionary reads like a romance. Honored by Queen 
Victoria for discoveries made in Africa." Courier Journal, 
June 22, 1913. 



1. William Lawson Smith. 

2. Feb. 14, 1849, Bowling Green, Va. 

3. 

4. B. A. Collegiate Department, Lincoln University, Pa., 
1883. Theology under Dr. Hoge, Richmond, Va. 

5. April, 1890, Martha T. Miles, public school teacher, Rich- 
mond, Va. 

6. Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church, Ashland, 10 years. 
. . . . Harper Memorial Church, 1 year. Mt. Hermon. 
Chula, Va. 

7. 

8. 21 years. 

9. & 10. 



Episcopal. 

1. Samuel Whittemore Grice. 

2. July 8, 1880, Planters ville, Georgetown Co., S. C. 

3. B. D. 

4. Graduated St. Augustine's Collegiate Course at Raleigh, 
X. C, 1901. St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute. 
Graduated from the Bishop Payne Divinity School, Petersburg, 
Va. 1904. 

5. June 28, 1905, Susan M. Rhone, Raleigh. N. C. 

6. Church of the Epiphany, Spartanburg, S. C. ; 5 years. 
New Warden of Bishop Payne Divinity School, Peters- 
burg, Va. 

7. Have no regular clnirch. 

8. 9 years. 

9. 



I 



Kia.ic.iors ni;\-i:i.()i'Mi:\ r oi.' tiiI': xi-cro 227 

10. Graduated as Valedictorian of class. Secretary of the 
Convocation among Colored people in South Carolina, 2 years. 
Now the only colored Professor in the Divinity School, Peters- 
burg. 



1. David Jonathan Lee. 

2. Sept. 15, 1880. 

3. 

4. The Mico Training College, Jamaica, B. W. I.. 1900-'03. 
Lincoln University, 111., 1905. Bp. Payne Divinity School, 
Petersburg, 1906-'09. 

5. 

6. Grace P. E. Church, Norfolk, Va., 1909-1914, and Tunly 
Chapel, Berkely, Va.. July 1912-1914. 

7. 205. 

8. 6 years. 

9. & 10. 



1. Joseph Fenner Mitchell. 

2. Jan. 9, 1853, Franklinton, N. C. 

3. ^ 

4. Christian College, Franklinton, N. C, 1879-1882. The 
Bishop Payne Divinity School, P. E. Churcli. 1886-1889, Pe- 
tersburg, Va. 

5. June 7, 1874, S. A. Winston. 

6. St. Stephen's Church, Petersburg, Va. 1886-1897. . . . 
Alexandria, Va., 7 years. 

7. 31. 

8. 25 years. 

9. Preached baccalaureate sermon to class 1892 of the Va. 
N. & C. L. L 

10. Presbyter of the church. 



1. Sandy Alonzo Morgan. 

2. July 15, 1887, Richmond, Va. 



228 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

4. St. Paul's School, Lavvrenceville, Va.. 1903-'05. Bishop 
Payne Divinity School, Petersburg, Va., 1905-'09. 

5. Feb. 2, 1911, Mary E. Smith. 

6. St. Margaret's, Orange, Va., 1 year Ports- 
mouth, Va. 

7. 80. 

8. 5 years. 

9. & 10. No. 



1. James Solomon Russell. 

2. bee. 20, 1857, Palmer's Springs, Va. 

3. 

4. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, 
Va., 1874-5 and 1877-8. St. Stephen's Normal School and the 
Branch Theological School of Virginia, Petersburg, Va., 
1878-'82. 

5. Dec. 20, 1882, Virginia M. Morgan, Petersburg, Va. 

6. St. Paul's Church, Lawrenceville, since 1882. General 
missionary in Brunswick and Mecklenburg counties. 

7. 220. 

8. Since March 16, 1882. 

9. Ordained Deacon March 9, 1882, advanced to the Priest- 
hood Feb. 9, 1887, appointed Archdeacon for colored work in 
tlie Diocese of Southern Virginia in 1893. 

10. Founder and principal of St. Paul Normal and Indus- 
trial School. 



1. Charles Louis Somers. 

2. Jan. 3, 1875, Washington, D. C. 

3. None. 

4. St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, 1896-'97. How- 
ard University 1897-1901. Bishop Payne Divinity School, 
1901 -'04. 

5. Dec. 27, 1904, Frances Ellen Harper. 

6. Meade Memorial Chapel, Alexandria, Va., 3 months.. 
St. Paul's Church, Gordonsville, 2 months. Richmond, Va. 

7. 160. 

8. 10 years. 



RELIGIOUS DlvVELOPMENT OK TIIIC N-KC.RO 220 

9. On Board of Trustees Negro Reformatory Association of 
\'a. President Interdenominational Ministvrial Union of l\ioh- 
mond, Va. 

10. 1 liad to work to suj^port myself in school with only Iht 
assistance of a widowed mother. 



AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

1. Israel Lafayette Butt. 

2. May 3, 1846, Norfolk Co., Va. 

3. D. D. 

4. Richmond Institute, 1878-1880. Hampton Institute, The- 
ological Department, 1883-1887. Correspondence Course, 
Payne Seminary, Selma, Ala., 5 years. 

5. May 29, 1911, Marie Church, Eastville, Va. (second wife). 

6. St. James Mission, Norfolk, Va., one year 

Allen Chapel, one year, present charge. 

7. 330. 

8. }i7 years. 

9. Delegate to General Conference, 1900. Columbus, Ohio ; 
1904. Chicago. Justice of the Peace, 6 years. Constable, 3 
years, Norfolk Co. 

10. 



1. Norman Wesley Brown. 

2. Oct. 20. 1875, High Point, Md. 

3. 

4. Alorgan College. Balto., Md. ; Howard University, Wash- 
ington, D. C, Classes of 1896 and 1900. 

5. Nov. 7, 1900, Sophia Banks. 

6. Patuxtant, Md., 2 years Newport News, Va., 

4 years. 

7. 385. 

8. 19 years. 

9. President Norfolk A. M. E. Preachers' Meeting; Pres. 
Negro Business League, Newport News; member Ex. Com. 
Kittrell College, Kittrell, N. C. ; Delegate to International C. 
E. Conventions Atlantic City and Los Angeles. Alt. Del. to 



230 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

Gen. Conf. A. M. E. church in 1912. Chm'n Com. on Elders' 
Orders, Va. Conf. A. M. E. church. 

10. Mason, Odd Fellow, and Pythian. Wrote thesis on "Im- 
mortality of the Soul" and Morris Brown College, Atlanta, 
Ga., conferred title of D. D. on me. 



1. Oscar Theodore Day. 

2. July 29, 1865, East Liherty, Ohio. 

3. D. D. 

4. Public and High schools, Cincinnati, Ohio ; Correspond- 
ence Course in Theology, Howard University. 

5. July 6, 1893, Jennie Elnora Jackson, Xenia, Ohio. 

6. Sawyer Chapel, Elizabeth City, N. C now 

Presiding Elder, Richmond District. Va. Annual Conference. 

7. 

8. 17 years. 

9. 



10. Taught eight years in public schools of Ohio. 



1. Marion E. Davis. 

2. Jan. 19, 1864, Ebenezer, Miss. 

3. B. D., D. D. 

4. Waldern University, Nashville, Tenn., 1882-'86; Normal, 
University, Wilberforce, Ohio, 1888-'94, College Preparatory 
and Theological Courses, graduating 1894. 

5. Oct. 27, 1897, Cora L. Flagg. 

6. Springfield, Ohio, 4 years Portsmouth, Va., 

4 years. 

7. 1186. 

8. 24 years. 

9. President, Stringer Academy, Friars Point, Miss., and 
Ward Academy, Natchez, Miss. 

10. Have cleared several churches of debt, and managed a 
$5,000 campaign for the Old Folks Home. 



1. Edward Hughes Hunter. 

2. Nov. 13, 1865, Raleigh, N. C. 



RELIGIOITS DKVIvLOI'MKNT •)!• I 1 1 l. Xl'.CUO 231 

3. A. B., LL. B.. LL. M., D. D. 

4. Public scliools, Ralei^-li ; Literary and Classical Courses, 
Lincoln Univ.. I'a., 1883-'85 ; Law Course, Howard Univ., 
Washington, D. C, 1892, 1893, 1896; Theology, Howard Univ., 
1902-3. 

5. 1889, Mary L. Russell; 1903, Jennie M. Spears, Washing- 
ton. D. C. 

6. A. Al. E. Church, v^andy Springs, Md.. one year 

St. John's Norfolk, \'a. (present pastorate), three years. 

7. About 1425. 

8. About 12 years. 

9. Accepted as the logical standard bearer in efforts of Va. 
Methodists to secure official recognition. Served in Washing- 
ton, D. C, as Sunday-school superintendent, president Y. P. 
S. C. E. ; secretary of Trustee Board, etc. 

10. "Spent 19 years in U. S. Government service; expert 
examiner of land claims for the Government. Member of the 
bar of District of Columbia. Fine business record and standing 
in Raleigh, W^ashington, Richmond and Norfolk. A success- 
ful teacher in North Carolina." Rev. S. S. Morrison. 



1. George D. Jimmerson. 

2. Oct. 4, 1849, Salem, Va. 

3. D. D. 

4. Colver (now Virginia Union University), 1869 and 70. 

5. July 4, 1871, Emma S. Ashby. 

6. Prospect, Prince Ed. Co., Va., 1 year Em- 
manuel A. M. E. Church, Portsmouth, Va., 4 years. Presiding 
Elder 13 years. 

7. 3,000 members in District. 

8. 43 years. 

9. None. 

10. 1 was a slave. 



1. Samuel Solomon Morris. 

2. Sept. 2, 1878, Portsmouth, Va. 

3. A. B., B. D. 



232 RIXIC.IOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO 

4. Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga., 1902-'05 ; Gammon 
Theo. Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., 1899-1902. 

5. April 4, 1912, Mary Henrietta Lawson, Danville, Va., 
teacher and State Normal Graduate. 

6. West End, Atlanta, Ga., 1901-'03 Richmond, 

Va., Third Street, from 1911 to date. 

7. 400. 

8. 13 years. 

9. Director Grand Fountain United Order True Reformers, 
Member Grand Lodge Masons of Va. 

10. Supt. Ind. Dept. Morris Brown College, 1903-05. State 
Supt. Va. Allen C. E. League, Member Gen. Conf. A. M. E. 
Church 1912. Member Miss. Board A. M. E. Church. Pur- 
suing Post Graduate course for Ph. D. degree, Va. Union Uni- 
versity. 



1. Alfred J. Nottingham. 

2. Aug. 18, 1868, Eastville, Va. 

3. D. D. 

4. Hampton Institute, May, 1891. Theological Correspond- 
ence Course, Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga., 1908. 

5. Sept. 6, 1893, Mattie J. C. Robins, Eastville, Va. 

6. Mt. Zion A. M. E. Church, Norfolk Co., 3 years. . . . 
Hampton, 3 years. 

7. 200. ' 

8. 18 years. 

9. Secretary A. M. E. Conference, 8 years; member A. M. 
E. Gen. Conf., Kansas City, Mo., 1912, and First Asst. Record- 
ing Sec. 

10. 



1. James Woods Sanders. 

2. Near Nashville, Tenn. 

3. D. D. 

4. Killrell College, Kittrell. N. C. 

5. Oct., 1899, Corintha May Bolden. 

6. Colorado Springs, 1885 (Preached in North 



RELUUOUS 1)1:vi:i,()1'M1:NT Ol" TlllC Nl'C.KO 233 

Missouri. Kansas and Colorado Conferences.) Brown's A. M. 
E. Church. Smithfield, Va., since 1910. 

7. 250. 

8. 29 years. 

9. Trustee Wilberforce University, Ohio. 

10. Have added 125 members to my present church. Have 
mission attached. 



1. George Claudius Taylor. 

2. July 12. 1862, Georgia. 

3. b. D. 

4. Payne College, Augusta, Ga.. finished 1888; Gammon 
Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., finished 1892. 

5. Widower. 

6. A. M. E. Church, Athens, Ga., 3 years Oce- 
ana, \'a. (present charge) three years. 

7. 560. 

8. 26 years. 

9. Royal High Priest, Impr'd Ancient Order Children of 
Israel (a benevolent institution), with 19,000 members. 

10. Have been called the church builder and money raiser. 



1. John Chambers Williams. 

2. July 9, 1853, Pittsborough, N. C. 

3. B. b. 

4. Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C, 1878 and 1879. Howard 
University, Washington, D. C, 1880 and 1883. 

5. April 23, 1885, J. R. St. Clair, Wytheville, Va. ; Nov. 3, 
1897, Carrie G. Johnston, Wytheville. Va. 

6. Danville Mission, one year Presiding Elder, 

Norfolk District, five years. 

7. 3301 members in District. 

8. 38 years. 

9. — 

10. Founder and Chief Shepherd of the Christian Helping 
Hand Association of the World, incorporated 1905. 



LBMy']5 



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